The Loved and the Lost II
by Sihaya
Summary: Sequel! Will searches for his love out on the seven seas, not knowing if she is alive or dead. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE AWAITING AN END TO THE ANGST, HERE IT IS. Sortof.
1. One: Snatch Ireland

A sequel! Uh-huh, it's not my birthday but it's cool anyway! 

Part II takes place after the movie, _Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,_ which means that eventually I will have to put an AU label on this story. Eventually. So, to dispel any doubt, Part I ended right before the movie and Part II is starting almost right after. I hope Jack and the other characters come out IC. Especially Jack. I've written some Jack stories before and it was easy for me to write him, but now in this fic…I dunno. 

Another note, the following song lyrics are out of order but I switched it up to fit the story. It's "_Delirium Trigger_" by Coheed & Cambria. If you haven't heard them, check it out, they were awesome at Warped Tour! 

I hope you enjoy, and, as always,

REVIEW!!!

~*~

The Loved and the Lost Part II: The Seven Seas

~*~

Chapter One 

Snatch Ireland   

~*~

_Remember when we were young…  
  
_

_Sit up right on the table a photograph of earth feeding me a way back  
  
_

_Frightened I tear alone or maybe not the only one there  
  
_

_I don't feel alive when you're cut short of misery  
  
_

_Will you pray it be the end? _

_Give a look surprise wide eyed to me  
  
_

_Then you'll know just what I am _

_The scare that triggers your fear  
  
_

_Come know me in a different light   
  
_

_Run sand hourglass in my time will I be worth?_

~*~  
  


               "A pirates life for me…" whispered Serenity Williams as she curled up in her blanket on the wooden floor of a pirate ship. She was thinking again, something she had been trying to avoid ever since she had been rudely snatched out of her life and brought here, to the middle of the Caribbean. To make things worse, she _smelled. _Not that that mattered. There were more important things. 

               Of all the places that she would have expected to end up after her wedding, this was not one of them. A month after the day she married Connor, she had expected herself to be either in Ireland, sailing to Ireland, or laying in a bed next to her husband talking of Ireland. Always Ireland. Ireland seemed like the farthest away place in the world at that moment as a drop of water landed on her forehead from the dripping ceiling above. 

               _It doesn't seem that someone up there likes me very much,_ she thought, glancing at the ceiling and watching another drop of water fall onto the floor right next to her head. _Both the men that I loved are dead, and I am stuck in the middle of the Caribbean Sea with the man that I most despise in the world. Oh, the irony,_ her mind said sarcastically. _What wonderful luck I have! _ 

               The month or so- she had lost track of the days a long time ago- that Serenity had spent on this boat had either been spent working up on the deck, sitting on the hard benches eating slimy mush that the pirates called food, or trying to drown out the awful noises of her heart screaming wildly as awful things were done to her in the night…but she didn't want to think about that. _Ever. _All she wanted was to rest on her flimsy hammock bed and dream, so that her mind could be home in a corpse's arms even when her body was not. 

               "Why did you have to take him?" a tear slid down her cheek and landed on the floor next to the puddle from the dripping ceiling. She pulled the ratted tatters of a blanket tighter around her shoulders and didn't bother to wipe the tears away. Serenity shivered as she realized that she didn't know what she had meant when she had said 'him.' _Did I mean Will or Connor? Connor or Will? Am I going to be playing this awful game of eeny-meeny-miney-moe until I die aboard this blasted ship? _

               And surely, she would die. 

~*~ 

               "Elizabeth," said Will, gathering her in his arms.

               "I know I don't want you to go, Will," said Elizabeth, cupping her hand around his cheek. "I shall miss you so terribly."

               "Me too," said Will. 

"At least let me come with you!"

Something in his heart revolted suddenly at her touch and he pulled away, putting on his hat as a cover and climbing down the first step that led from the governor's mansion. Elizabeth followed, as he knew she would, the train of her dress slipping down the stone and making a slithering, satiny noise. She clasped his hands in hers, and he knew that she would need a reaction, one last source of comfort before he left to once again sail the seven seas with Jack. Ever since he had returned to Port Royale from that last adventure, he knew that he would never be able to stay in Port Royale. The government might as well force him to leave, as they were planning too. He was now a wanted man, but to hell with it! He now knew who he was, and what his father had been. His blood was never more a mystery. "Goodbye, Elizabeth," he said, moving to kiss her on the cheek. Elizabeth turned her head so that their lips met instead. 

               "I love you," she said.

               "I love you too," he said as he walked into the darkness that was a Port Royale street at nighttime. A slight jangle sounded from the pocket of his waistcoat and he slipped his hand inside. The conch shell rested in his palm, providing more warmth in his hands than Elizabeth's own hands had. He remembered the dream that he had had in his delirium while he was recovering from his head wound. _This was for you, Serenity!_ He had yelled to the ocean, to himself, to the conch all at once. The blurred image of the dream threatened to slip from his mind's eye as he passed the graveyard, habitually dragging his left hand along the fence. A clean double-gravestone glowed eerily in the moonlight, and Will squinted to read the engraved epitaph even though he knew what it would say.

Connor and Serenity O'Malley 

_May Their Love Protect Them on Their Journey _

               Will sighed and continued towards the docks, for that was where he was headed. The moon passed behind a cloud as walked towards the ocean, listening to the lapping of the waves cut through the muggy air. He searched the horizon for the outline of a ship, for white sails would not give this ship away. This ship was the _Pearl. _ 

               However, it was not the silhouette of sails in the night that gave the ship away. It was humming. 

               "Da na na…and really bad eggs," came an off key rendition of the well known 'Pirate's Song' from somewhere along the beach. "Drink me up hearties, yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho…yo ho…"

               Will grinned in spite of himself. "Maybe you should learn the words, Jack," he said, seeing the outline of his captain's rather individual figure against the stars. "Then you won't sound like a fool whenever you want to sing something."

               "Who says I sound like a fool, mate?" Jack came closer, and Will could distinguish his eyes from the rest of his shadow as they stood an arms length apart. Jack smiled. "Did you say goodbye to your strumpet, then?" 

               "I did." 

               "Ay then." Jack clapped his hands once together, his rings glinting in the pale beams of moonlight. "Yo ho, yo ho," he hummed as he landed a square kick onto the nose of the canoe, causing it to slip out into the water. Will scanned the horizon once more for the ship's outline, but it could not be found. 

               "Where's the ship, Jack?" asked Will. "You didn't lose it, did you?" 

               Jack appeared to think for a minute, but then he shook his head. "No, no, I know exactly where it is."

               "I'm surprised to see that Anamaria hasn't killed you yet." 

               "You've only been gone a week, boy." 

               Will laughed softly, gripping his oar with strong hands and pushing the canoe farther out into the waves. He waded in a few feet and then jumped in. Jack followed suit with much more grace. Once the captain was situated on the wooden bench, he pointed behind his shoulder. "The ships around the bend there, a ways out. Didn't want the Navy trying to take her again." Jack spoke lightly of his ship, the ship that he had fought tooth and nail to recapture. Will decided not to mention upon the captain's more sensitive moments and instead put all his energy into the rowing. Maybe the sea would aright his depressed mood, which Jack seemed to have sensed. The captain was unusually quiet that evening as they road around the bend, black sails appearing on the horizon. Moonlight played upon the deck, as if in a mockery of what once had been. Skeletons danced across Will's mind as if making his memories into a horrible nightmare. 

               "Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!" said Jack quietly; as if he couldn't resist one more stab at the tune. 

~*~

               Serenity lay; awake still, rocking slowly in her hammock. The blanket had long since proved itself to be of no use and now lay under her head, her golden-brown tresses spilling across it, the several knots in it hidden in the darkness. She heard footsteps on the deck above- the night crew running about on the deck. Shouted orders and replies floated down to her ears through the porthole that was near her bed.

               She still couldn't believe that she was here. 

               Heavy footsteps sounded on the wooden planks of the floor, close to her and out of place against the still of the night. A black figure grew in the darkness and came to stand next to her bed.

               "Hello, Daniel," she whispered.

               "'Ello, poppet." 


	2. Two: The Sea Goes On For Miles

Sorry it's taking me so long to get these chapters up, I'm so busy and I still have to formulate the definite plot, but at least it's getting done! 

~*~

Chapter Two 

The Sea Goes On For Miles 

~*~

               The sun beat down on the deck of the ship and the sailors that stood upon it. The rays had turned the brown of Serenity's hair a lighter shade, as she observed the strands of hair that had fallen from the messy braid that she had tucked under a floppy hat. Her arms and hand had browned also, the result of working for a month up in the sunlight. 

               A curiosity concerning the sailor that had pulled her back onto the ship the first night she had been here stirred in her heart for a moment, before her mind rendered it a swift death. Her first night on this ship had been torture, the second night hell, but she had been numb. She was still numb. It surprised her every time she looked in the mirror that she saw a reflection instead of a ghost.  

               Actually, being numb was not entirely true. She still felt some things- the fear that every morning she would wake up and vomit out of the porthole. Serenity knew in her heart that she wasn't strong enough to kill two people. Killing herself wouldn't be a problem, but an innocent unborn child…

               She knew that she wouldn't be able to live if she wouldn't let the child see the sun. 

               _If only Will was still alive,_ she thought. _He is the only man whose children I would want to bear. Not these men… Not like this… _

Inside her heart a calmer voice awoke. _You're not with child yet, Serenity,_ said the voice. _They haven't beaten you yet. _

"They haven't beaten me yet," she whispered to herself. "Not yet." 

~*~ 

               "Hoist the sails! Get moving you land-lubbing scallerwags!" called a shrill female voice. 

               Will climbed the rigging to help some of the more agile crewmembers get the sails into position. The sails fluttered like black shrouds in the sea wind. _Anamaria's hair kind of looks like the sails now_, Will thought. Amused, he watched Jack cower in fear of the woman that ruled him and the rest of the crew with an iron fist. Will knew that Jack was afraid of no other woman, and that was why the captain loved Anamaria so, maybe not in the way that Will loved Elizabeth, but the pirate had more respect for Ana then he had for any man. 

               Jack consulted his compass and then consulted Gibbs as Will slid down the rigging to join their conversation. Gibbs had a worried look on his face, a line creasing his weathered forehead. 

               'Where too, Mr. Gibbs?" Jack was saying. 

               "We be runnin' low on some supplies, Cap'n," said Gibbs.

               "Ah, I see," said Jack, resting a hand on the wheel and tapping the toe of his boot against the wooden top of the deck. His thick braided, beaded and dread- locked hair swung heavily in the ocean winds. It was amazing to Will that he had managed, in such a short time, to befriend such a character. He marveled at how he had once considered the dank, dark workshop to be his home, even though he missed it at times; he understood fully what the old sailors meant when they talked about the ocean-

               The ocean was pure freedom. 

               "What be it that we're runnin' low on, Mr. Gibbs?" queried Jack, a glint in his eye. 

               "Uh…it be…the gruel, cap'n, and the rum…" added Gibbs. If it was any other person that Gibbs had been talking to, they would not be low on rum, they still had two full crates of it left…but it was Jack that Gibbs was talking to, and any amount of crates under three was a state of emergency.

               "Not the rum, Gibbs!" said Jack, abandoning pretense.

               "Ay, the rum, cap'n." 

               "Let me put on me thinkin' cap, mate," Jack said as he ran his finger absentmindedly along the brim of his hat. He was deep in thought. "Where's the nearest town?"

               "That would be Tortuga, cap'n," muttered Gibbs. Will couldn't help but grin as he remembered Gibbs's last adventure in Tortuga. It had ended with some angry women and some spilled rum. Jack was also apparently thinking along the same lines as his friend.

               "Good times, mate," he said. "Tortuga it is. Anamaria!" he shouted. A scowling brown face appeared from the door on the floor of the ship that led down to its bowels. 

               "Aye?" 

               "We're goin' to Tortuga!"

               Anamaria shook her head and disappeared again, grumbling as she lowered the door. Seeing her retreat below the deck like that reminded Will of everything past for some odd reason, and a feeling of guilt crept into his heart at having been happy for a moment. He leaned on the railing of the ship and gazed at the deep expanse of ocean that stretched out below him. _The sea goes on for miles…_

_               Is Serenity down there? Could I be standing above her very corpse at this instant? I could be getting nearer to her at every moment…every second could be bringing me farther away from her._

_               Is it wrong to hold on to her like this? Should I just let her go? _

One part of his heart answered yes, another no. Once again, William Turner was torn. 

~*~ 

               Elizabeth sat on the small balcony that opened off her room, scratching a few notes into her journal. _I saw Will of a few days ago,_ she wrote,_ he's off on another one of his adventures. I do wish that I could be with him. Every moment I spend without him, my heart misses him a little more. _The wind played with her curls as she paused for a moment to look out at the beautiful Caribbean scenery. The quill went slack in her hand, grazing the paper as her eyes scanned the horizon. _Still I search the skyline every day for a black dot that could be the Pearl returning to me. Returning Will to me. _

From inside the bedroom came a knock on the door, followed by the telltale "Elizabeth?" It was the governor, her father. Elizabeth stood and deposited her writing materials on her desk before crossing the room and smoothing her skirts. 

               "Yes?" she called daintily. The mahogany door opened, and her father's bewigged head poked through the opening. 

               "You have a visitor, darling." 

               "Why did you have to come and tell me this yourself?" asked Elizabeth. "Couldn't one of the maids have done it?" 

               "It's…a _special_ visitor, dearest," said Governor Swann, a slightly guilty look passing across his face. _Daddy is so bad at hiding his emotions,_ thought Elizabeth, laughing before she realized what this could mean.

               "I do hope you're not trying to match me with some new Commodore, Father," said Elizabeth, "you know my heart belongs to…"

"The pirate, yes," said her father hurriedly, "but he called on his own accord. It would not be polite to refuse him a visit." 

               "It's the Commodore, isn't it?" asked Elizabeth, biting her lip gently as she waited for her father to answer. He clasped his hands behind his back and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

               "Yes, it is Commodore Norrington," he said. Elizabeth sighed. "Make yourself decent," he added as he began to close the door. "We can't have you receiving the Commodore while you look like a ragamuffin."

               "What difference would it make?" Elizabeth asked the closed door. She huffed and crossed the room to her bateau, where her silver brush sat. She ran it through her hair a few times before she reached for some of the diamond hairpins that had been brought on a ship from Austria. With lithe fingers she adjusted her corset and then ran her hands over her skirt, smoothing out all the wrinkles before she adjusted the neckline of her dress. She made one last pause to slip on her black buckle shoes before she exited her room. She held her head high as she regally descended the sweeping staircase, wanting to look her best, as Norrington would have his first look at her since she had denied him at the botched hanging a month ago. 

                Norrington was in full military dress, looking quite awkward with a rose clutched in his hand as he stood in their parlor. Elizabeth had the grace to honor him with a smile as she approached him. He bowed sharply, his heels together- a military bow. Everything about this man was military since she had seen him last. He hadn't changed a bit. 

               _Is there a heart under that starched coat?_ She wondered. He reached for her hand and she gave it. His lips felt funny upon her skin as he brushed them against her hand. 

               "Miss Swann," he said.

               "Commodore Norrington," she said. 

               "May I have a moment?" he asked, gesturing towards the couches that were set up neatly opposite each other in the center of the parlor. Elizabeth slid a sidelong glance at her father, who nodded his approval and swung the double doors shut. Norrington offered her a seat, and she delicately rearranged her skirts as he sat.

               "I know this might be awkward," he said as he handed her the rose. "I just wanted to say that…if you ever change your mind…"

               _Fat chance, _thought Elizabeth rudely, observing that the Commodore had gained a bit of weight since she had seen him last.

               "I will always be available for you," he finished eloquently. 

               Elizabeth smiled tightly. "I'm afraid that I've already made up my mind, Commodore," she said, "but the rose _is _beautiful." 


	3. Three: Bruises

~*~

Chapter Three  

Bruises 

~*~

               Serenity would swear later that everywhere he touched her his fingertips left a bruise. 

               The first night she had fought. The second night she had fought. The third and the fourth night she had fought. 

               The fifth night only brought a grim resignation- the more she fought, the more Daniel enjoyed it. 

               The thirtieth night was no different. Nor was the thirty-second, or the thirty-eight, of the fiftieth. She hadn't gotten to sixty yet. 

               She'd let you know when she got to sixty.


	4. Four: The Almost Silence

The song below belongs to the lyrical geniuses known as Thrice. The song is called The Melting Point of Wax. If you like that kind of music I strongly urge you to pick up their new CD (The Artist in the Ambulance) and if you don't look at the lyrics anyway. It's worth the whole $12.99 I spent on it at FYE. 

Disclaimer- I don't own PotC. I do own Serenity and Daniel and also Graciela, Rosalia, and Carmela. I also own the Silent Pirate. Yay for me! 

~*~

Chapter Four 

The Almost Silence  __

~*~

_there's no promise of safety __with these secondhand wings __but I'm willing to find out __what impossible means __I climb through the heavens __on feathers and dreams __cause the melting point of wax __means nothing to me  __nothing to me __I will touch the sun _

_or I will die trying_

  

~*~ 

               "She was such a pretty thing!" Daniel drunkenly reminisced over a foaming mug of rum. Serenity was hiding up on the rigging again, enjoying the solitude. The night was still, and it would have been silent as the grave had the sailors not been drunk. 

_When are they **not** drunk? _Thought Serenity. _Every night's a party, every morning is the hangover, and every afternoon is like the silence before the storm…and then the cycle repeats itself. It repeats itself again and again and again…and again. _

The _fiesta_ happened to be even livelier this night, as they were quickly approaching one of the small inhabited islands that the Caribbean was dotted with. No doubt the sailors would find a plaything other than Serenity this night, which was why she was able to steal away, here, to the almost silence of the rigging. 

There was a creaking footstep on the wooden deck below, and instinctively Serenity curled up tight, clutching onto one of the ropes attached to the crow's nest to prevent falling. Once she had caught her breath and gotten a secure grip on the rope she leaned over the rigging as far as she dared. A shadow stretched, a patch of darkness in the light thrown by a solitary lantern. It was the sailor, the silent one. She leaned back against the nest and watched him as he went inside. 

Would he also find 'love' on the Caribbean? 

~*~ 

"Jack, you're an idiot!" said Anamaria. 

"Sticks and stones, love," muttered Jack under his breath as Anamaria rambled on.

"Last time we were in Tortuga we didn't leave for a week!" she said, stomping the heel of her foot angrily down on the deck. Will, who had been writing in his journal hoping to have caught a quiet moment, sighed. There was no solitude on this boat. "We can't go there!"

"Last time I checked, I was the captain of this bloody pirate ship!" said Jack, prompting an abrupt laugh from Mr. Gibbs, who was clutching one of the precious few bottles of rum in his hand. Anamaria glared at Jack.

"Well I would be the captain of me _own_ bloody pirate ship had you given me another one!" she yelled. Gibbs shook his head and descended the stairs below-decks.

"Bad luck, mate," he muttered as he disappeared below the wooden façade of the boat. 

Eager to return to his pen, Will finished scratching their position and a few notes about the weather before he turned to a loose sheaf of paper that he had brought out. He tuned out the argument between Jack and Anamaria, only listening to the scratching of the ink on the paper. _Dear Elizabeth,_ he wrote mechanically in fairly neat script. His hand held the pen poised above the paper expectantly, but suddenly his mind went blank and he realized that he had nothing to say. "Elizabeth," he whispered to himself, hoping that his lovers name would bring him some inspiration. 

It didn't. 

After about five minutes his hand grew tired, and he placed the pen down and tore off the top of the paper. It left him with a blank paper, again. 

_Dear Serenity,_ he wrote then, and he was not at loss for things to say. 

~*~ 

A blob had appeared on the horizon. Serenity had noticed it as she was enjoying her bird's eye view of the ocean. Already a light had appeared on the beach- a torch. The watch, having spotted the island from over the rim of his rum bottle, cried out a "'Land, ho!" and then issued some orders to the sailors that had appeared on the deck. Hurriedly Serenity made herself look busy, already up on the rigging. The men, drunk, hardly noticed her presence and worked as if nothing was abnormal. They murmured nonsense words about women, excited about the prospect of love found on that island. A few dark marks on the beach could be identified as people, and as the ship drew closer an anchor was thrown down. The ship skidded on it's own momentum for a moment before scudding to a stop. The rowboats carried most of the pirates to the shore of the island.

"Fresh meat," muttered Serenity.

"Fresh plunder!" one of the old pirates said heartily before raising his rum bottle and swigging half of it in one breath. "A payday for us all."

Serenity tucked a loose strand of hair inside her floppy hat and leaned against the railing. A single scream was carried on the wind from the island, bringing some of a nightmare back to Serenity as if in an echo of her own. 

It was less than an hour later that the pirates returned to their ship. They had kidnapped three women from the island and had brought them on deck along with the rest of their booty. Rum, money, jewelry, all was spilled onto the deck to be divided among animals. The three women huddled close with each other, sobbing and pleading with their captors. Serenity saw several frightened glances thrown her way, and also slightly beside her, to the silent pirate that appeared leaning against the rail next to her. It occurred to Serenity that they thought she was a man. Their fear stirred Serenity's heart, for it was an emotion that she had been long numbed to now. She reached up and took off her hat, letting her hair flow free halfway down her back. She saw the pirate slip a glance at her from the corner of his eye as she went to the three women. 

Those three women were now her sisters. 

~*~ 

There were several empty bottles scattered about the deck of the Black Pearl. Will selected one and slipped the letter inside. "I miss you," he whispered and dropped the bottle from his fingertips. It landed with a plop in the ocean and was soon swallowed by the waves, bobbing up a moment later before being swallowed again. "I will _always_ miss you."

~*~ 

"I'm Serenity," she said, extending her hand. The three women regarded her with fear.

"Are you a pirate?" one of them asked in stuttering English.

"No," she answered. "I'm just like you." 

The one woman, who seemed to be the most confident of the three, leaned forward a bit. "I'm Graciela." She said cautiously. "This is Rosalia, and Carmela."

"It's nice to meet you," said Serenity as some pirates paraded by, their hands filled with loot. "But you'd better get used to this." 


	5. Five: Broken

There's this really hot junior at my school. !!! 

The song belongs to Stephanie Bentley and appears on the Holes soundtrack.

~*~

Chapter Five 

Broken __

~*~

I will survive 

_I will endure_

_When the going's rough_

_You can be sure_

_I'll tough it out_

_I won't give in_

_If I'm knocked down_

_I'll get up again_

_As long as my dream's alive_

_I will survive_

~*~ 

               Carmela balanced precariously on the top railing. Serenity stood cautiously a few yards away, behind Rosalia and Graciela. They had been on the ship for less than six hours and already the girl had broken. 

               The other two were trying in vain to get her to come down. "_Carmelita,_" said Rosalia, "please come down." 

               Carmela shook her head violently, her thin shoes slipping on the wood of the rail. Their island had sunk beneath the horizon less than an hour ago, and the first pangs of homesickness (and other things) had hit. "I can't," she said. "I can't stay here." The strap of her dress had been torn and the right shoulder was sagging halfway down her arm. The bright fabric of the dress looked tainted in the moonlight as the girl flailed her arms around, fighting to keep balance for one more moment. 

               "Carmela," said the sensible Graciela, "if you don't come down from there, there is no chance that you will ever get home."

               "We'd never get home anyway," argued Carmela.

               "They have their way with us, they'll kill us next," said Rosalia softly. 

               "I won't let them hurt you," said Graciela. 

               "They already have!" said Carmela, gesturing at her torn dress and at the fresh bruises on her skin. "I won't stay here. I swim back to the island," she said. 

               "We're all hurt and tired, Carmela! _Tenemos sueno_," Graciela said soothingly. "But we must go on." 

               Carmela shook her head and dove into the water. Rosalia lurched forward, throwing herself halfway over the rail in an effort to grab her friend before she fell. "Carmela, no!" she yelled, panicked.

               "Shh!" said Serenity, "the pirates, they'll hear you!" Rosalia sobbed, but made an effort to keep it down as Graciela went over to comfort her. It was impossible to see if Carmela had survived the fall, as the moon had passed behind a cloud. The only sounds were the lapping of the waves on the ship and Rosalia's muffled cries. Serenity hesitated, and then went over to the upset girl. "She made a choice," she said as Graciela took a step back. Rosalia sighed heavily. "Graciela was right," Serenity continued. "There's no chance that you'll ever get home- that _we'll_ ever get home- if we give up hope. Maybe Carmela will make it back to shore," she added, patting Rosalia on the shoulder.

               "I don't want to jump," said the girl. She must have been at least five years younger than Serenity, who felt a pang of sympathy in her breast. Had she also had someone in her life, someone that meant more to her than anything else? _We've all been torn away from our own separate realities,_ she thought. _We're really not so different. _

~*~ 

               "And then there were three!" said one of the pirates morbidly, surveying what the pirates referred to as their 'booty.' Rosalia and Graciela stood together, Rosalia a step behind the latter, which was holding her chin high. She was a strong woman, and Serenity could tell that the pirates would never beat her, even if that meant killing herself. However, she had doubts about whether or not these two women would proceed to take their own lives the way Carmela had. The girl had not lasted but six hours, and already she had given up. Maybe Graciela and Rosalia would do the same. 

               "We'll have to get more from the next island," said another. "Where we be headin', Cap'n?" 

               "We be headin' where I tell ye to!" said the captain, whose hat was pulled low over his face so that it through a shadow over his features. His skin was rough and mangled with tattoos and scars. Rings hung from his ears, which were scarce covered by scraggly grayish-black hair. He was a cruel man, cruel at the mast and cruel in the bed. Serenity shuddered at the sight of him. Most of her efforts were put into avoiding him at all costs.

               Someone grabbed Graciela roughly by the shoulder and Serenity couldn't help feeling a bit relieved that they were not grabbing her instead. Immediately, however, she felt guilty, and trailed the pirate that had taken her until she came to a closed door. 

               There was nothing that she could do for Graciela. 

~*~ 

               The older woman, for Serenity had come to view Graciela as being both stronger and wiser than herself, was strangely subdued that night. She said nothing. She only opened her mouth to stick half a spoonful of gruel inside.

               "There's talk that we're going to Tortuga," said Serenity. "I lived near there." 

               "How have you survived all this time?" asked Graciela. 

               Serenity put down her spoon. "You're not going to give up on me too, are you?" she asked. "Don't do what Carmela did, please!" 

               "I…" said Graciela. "How have you done it?"

               Serenity sighed, and then she shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Everyone I've ever loved…everything I've ever cared about…it's all gone now, all of it. But somewhere inside of me…there's this silly hope that some of it might be left."

               Had Serenity been standing on the deck, she would have seen a rum bottle float past the boat at that moment. 

~*~ 

               An apple bonked Will on the head. He whirled his head around in time to see a guilty looking captain standing near the door. "Sorry, mate," said Jack. "Apple?"

               "Thanks," said Will sarcastically, biting into the soft fruit. It was overripe, almost to the point of rotting, and it was sickeningly juicy in his mouth. Jack crossed the room in three strides and sat down in the chair opposite Will, automatically putting his feet up on the table and taking an apple for himself. He ate it thoughtfully, unaware of the juices running down his chin and getting caught in the sparse chin patch that he had grown. He absentmindedly dragged the back of his sleeve over his mouth and tossed the apple core behind him, out the porthole. 

               "To you ever get tired of being out here?" asked Will, glancing out the porthole. Jack shrugged. 

               "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow," he said by way of an answer. "I can't get tired of the sea. It's not in me, mate. Are _you_ tired of the sea?" 

               Will sighed. "No, not really," he said unconvincingly. "It's just that I…I wish that…"

               "That you were home with your bonnie lass?" said Jack with a grin.

               Will nodded. "I guess so…home with my bonnie lass." He smiled. "Home with Elizabeth."

               "Ah, a treasure, she is," said Jack, "But not exactly my type."

               "No," Will laughed, "you need more of a…sea-woman. Like Anamaria," he said devilishly. Jack had enough time to look appalled before Anamaria herself stuck her head through the doorway. "Speak of the devil," said Will. 

               "Aye," said Anamaria. "The devil it is!" 

               "I'll just leave you two alone," said Will, getting up out of his chair and offering it to Anamaria, who sat heavily in it.

               "Apple?" said Jack as Will closed the door. 


	6. Six: A Wonderfully Romantic Story

The song belongs to Thrice (again)  :0) It's called _Don't Tell And We Won't Ask. _

And y'all, face it- Elizabeth has to be in the story. As much as we don't like her- wOOt wOOt- she is one of the main characters. She has to be. Somebody has to get trampled, don't they? Mosh pit!!! 

~*~

Chapter Six

A Wonderfully Romantic Story __

~*~

_Don't tell and we won't ask you how__You sleep at night when the lights go out__You're all alone__With all the ghosts of lesser humans__Whose lives you spilt to suit your own__Sit and think of all the dollars and the cents__And your blue blood__You'll see it all makes perfect sense_

~*~ 

               "Whar' he be takin' us?" muttered one of the men as Serenity lay with her back to them. No one had come for her yet, but Rosalia had disappeared. A tear ran down her cheek and landed on the burlap hammock that she lay upon as she thought of what was happening. _Those poor girls,_ she thought, not thinking of how they were going through exactly the same thing that she had gone through. _I had wanted to stay…pure…until I was married,_ cried an inner voice. _I still am pure,_ said another voice. _I chose nothing._

               A weight pulled down the end of her hammock, and a hand rested next to her foot. Serenity opened her tear filled eyes and saw Daniel's silhouette at the end of her hammock. She sat up and pulled away from him at the same time, but he only scooted ever closer. She gave an inaudible sigh of defeat as Daniel ran a finger down her arm. 

               "Why do you do this, Daniel?" she asked softly.

               "You mean, why do I do this with you and not with the other ones?" he asked.

               "You're disgusting," said Serenity. "You have no respect for anyone."

               "I have respect for myself," said Daniel.

               "How do you sleep at night?" she asked. He leaned closer.

               "I don't," he leered. His breath was hot on her face as he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. She winced even as he kissed her, and tried to pull away. He grinned and leaned back, getting up off the hammock and leaving her shaking and sweating on her swinging bed. 

~*~

               "Tortuga, Tortuga," hummed Jack in some kind of nonsense tune as he danced with the wheel of his ship. The black sails billowed overhead. "We're so close," he said. "I can almost smell it!"

               "I wasn't aware that Tortuga had a smell," said Will.

               "Oh, it does mate," said Jack, "it does." 

               "Oh," said Will, raising his eyebrows as Jack went back to singing his Tortuga song. 

~*~

               Mrs. Williams sat on the sofa in her parlor at her inn, as she had done every evening for the past month. She wept the tears of a mother that had lost her child. She didn't notice her husband's absence. He had barricaded himself in his room again, as he had done every evening for the past month. Mrs. Williams sighed heavily and leaned her head on her hand, which was propped up on the arm of the sofa. The few tenants that had remained at the inn had recognized her need for privacy every evening, and they steered clear of the parlor.

               "Serenity," she said, thinking of her beautiful daughter. "If only I knew what had happened to you…"

               All that the poor woman knew was that her daughter had disappeared the same night as that man- Daniel- and the same night as Connor had been found dead on the beach lying next to an injured William Turner. William had left Port Royale also, to sail the high seas with the pirates, but that was all that Mrs. Williams knew or cared to know. Every connection that he had had with her daughter had seemed to be forgotten. Rumor had it that he was courting the governor's daughter, of all people. To the rest of the world, every day was the same as the day a month ago. They did not know that every dawn and every sunset brought terrible memories of her daughter's wedding day.

               Mrs. Williams stood and shakily placed a hand on the banister of the stairs. She looked up them and at the upstairs hallway as if to make sure that no one was there, and then she placed her foot on the bottom step. Slowly she ascended the steps, clutching the banister the whole way up. When she had reached the top, she turned and headed down the hallway, past her daughter's room, past her son's room that was now empty also and rented to tenants, and to the end of the hallway. She stood in front of the door that led into the room that she had once shared with her husband. Now she only shared it with a ghost of a man, driven to a death inside. 

               She raised a hand and knocked on the door to her own bedroom. A minute passed, and then the doorknob turned and the heavy mahogany door swung open a few inches. 

               "Dear?" she asked hesitantly. The door opened the rest of the way and the sobbing woman collapsed into the arms of her sobbing husband.

               She found that misery was much easier to bear with company. 

~*~

               _Was this where it happened? _Wondered Elizabeth as she walked across the beach. _How about here? Here? _

She had heard the story of Connor's untimely death and Serenity's disappearance many times, but the whole thing had some kind of fantastic quality to it. Elizabeth knew that Will had loved Serenity in some way, and she couldn't help wondering if he was out on the sea because it brought her closer to him. She was somewhere out there, and now so was her Will. 

               _Was it here?_ No trace of blood remained on the sand. Workers had shoveled all of it away. But still, this beach was the scene of a horrible death, and it would always be that way. Those grains of sand were still floating out there, in that same ocean. 

               Many times she had passed the graveyard, with the new white stone that bore Connor and Serenity's names. Even though no body lay beneath it- Serenity was only presumed dead with no body, and Connor's corpse had been taken back to Ireland at his parent's request- it still bore the same mysticism and fanaticism of their story.

               It was romantic in a way that Elizabeth didn't like to admit. She wished that things could have turned out different. She had wished death on either of them- Connor, she had grown a liking to, and although Serenity was competition, she also had a likable goodness about her. 

               _If it weren't real, it would have made a wonderfully romantic story,_ thought Elizabeth, her interest turning away from the beach and back to the horizon, as usual. _Where are you, Will? Come back to me,_ she thought.

               _Please come back to me._

~*~

               There was only one man on the _Vengeance _that the captain trusted. That man was himself.

               "Where we be goin'?" he asked himself, glaring at a map of the Spanish Main. He had a gnarled finger on their current position and was scouting out possible pit stops and the time it would take to get there. There were still many villages that were left un-raided. There were still _many_ virgins left in the Caribbean. "We have to get me men some women!" he said. "They're tearin' the three of 'em apart…" 

               His eyes fell on the infamous town that had been revered by pirates for its rum and its pleasurable company alike. The captain grinned, revealing blackened and missing teeth.

               "Look's like we be goin' to Tortuga," he said.


	7. Seven: He Didn't Look Back

The song…DOES NOT BELONG TO THRICE!!! HAHAHA!!! This time it's Tsunami Bomb. The title of the song is _20 Goin On…_. If you've been waiting for a punk group with a female lead singer here you go. Tsunami Bomb. That's they're name. Read my story. 

~*~

Chapter Seven

He Didn't Look Back  __

~*~__

_No, you can't cheat time__Don't let that control your life__Goes over your head, look over your shoulder__When you look back you're that much older__It slips away, be what you're becoming__It slips away, and not who you were__It slips away__Grab hold of the here and now while you still have the chance__You're holding yourself back__Turn your face to the day__When you could be doing anything__Don't just dig your own grave__When will you trust yourself?__Take with you what you learn__The same as I do__Be yourself, not who you were_~*~ 

               "Can ye smell it yet?" asked Jack.

               "No," said Will. Jack shook his head and swigged a glass of rum. They were down to half a crate of the stuff, but they would be in Tortuga in a few days. Jack had imposed rum rations upon himself, and stricter ones on the rest of the crew, so everyone upon the _Black Pearl_ was fairly cranky. Anamaria sat, a hollow look in her eyes as she clutched an empty mug. Will was thankful that he was not yet addicted to the stuff. 

               "We'll be there soon," said Gibbs gruffly. 

               "Aye. We're making good time," said Anamaria as she sadly looked into her mug. 

               Will smiled but was suddenly overtaken with the urge to be alone. He excused himself and wandered up to the deck, to his thinking spot near the bow of the ship. He crossed his arms on the railing and leaned over, trying to discern the waves from the rest of the black sea. Whitecaps showed faintly in the moonlight, crashing against the black body of the _Pearl._

               The thoughts came quickly, in a rush. He thought of Elizabeth and Serenity. He thought of Connor and Daniel. He wondered about where Serenity had been taken, or if she was still alive. _What will I do if she's dead? _He wondered to himself. _I should have given my regrets to her parents…I must look like a fool to them. They're daughter is taken by pirates and I go around with the governor's daughter…I should have said something to them, anything to let them know how sorry I was. How sorry I **am**. _

_               I miss her so much…more than I miss Elizabeth, even. I love Elizabeth…but not with all my heart…_

_               Don't be silly,_ a different voice said. _You're only thinking these thoughts because you've been away from her for so long. The salt is driving you mad. Once you get back to Port Royale, you'll remember. Elizabeth is the one for you. You're going to propose to her on the beach…well, not on the beach…you're going to propose to her and you're going to get married and have many children that are not girls and are not named Serenity. _

"I have to stop thinking about her," he said to himself.

               "Thinkin' about who?" said Anamaria. Will jumped.

               "Don't sneak up on me like that!" he said. Ana grinned her usual twisted smile and joined Will at the bow of the _Pearl. _Will sighed. He knew that Anamaria had a more sensitive side…especially when she wasn't drunk, but he had only seen it once. _Humans are many faceted creatures, _he thought. _Is there a part of Serenity or Elizabeth that I have not yet seen? _

_               Is there a facet of Serenity or Elizabeth that I have been too blind to see? _

Ana repeated her question and Will pondered how to answer it. "I…" he began. "Elizabeth," he then said shortly.

               "Ah," said Ana. Some part of Will told him that she didn't believe him completely. "Well, that's life, laddie," she said comfortingly. "You'll see your wench soon enough." She then disappeared back inside the hold, to the rest of the rum rations and to Jack.

               "Thanks for your help," Will muttered under his breath, even though she was gone. He took a letter out of his pocket that he had managed to scratch down earlier that day. It was addressed to Elizabeth Swann, and her street in Port Royale followed. There was the letter, a fairly short one, devoid of the usual feeling that Will tried to convey into his posts. He had planned to mail it once they reached Tortuga, but now it didn't seem like such a good idea. 

               He stepped away from the railing, tossed the letter over his shoulder, and didn't look back as it landed in the ocean. 

~*~ 

               Daniel pulled at the ropes, hoisting the sails with the other sailors. Some of them spoke among themselves, but today Daniel wasn't in the mood for talking. His eyes strayed down the line to the left, landing on a floppy hat. Serenity was working as hard as any of the men, and she had gotten good at most of the jobs on deck. Daniel grinned. She hadn't stop to think of how she had become a pirate herself.

               He had never felt badly about what he had done to her. He had turned her life upside down and he had never had second thoughts about it. Men needed what they needed and that was a fact of life. 

               Serenity scowled at the ropes as she worked. He supposed that she was miserable, but he didn't really care. He never had really cared. He had gotten what he wanted- he was back on his ship among his friends, his family, and now he had a woman to pleasure himself with. The other two women were pretty too, he supposed, but Serenity had some kind of hypnotic quality in the way she moved, in her person…but she was so uncooperative. 

               Was that a bad thing? 

               Standing next to Serenity was the outcast pirate. He had come in for a job one day and the captain had given him one. The sailor- Daniel didn't know or care what his name was- had worked on ships all his life and two more hands on deck never hurt. He was a good pirate, never remorseful about killing or stealing, but he had a respect for women that Daniel found a tad annoying. Women were on this earth for a reason. Why not take advantage of it? 

               A few strands of hair had come loose from Serenity's braid and were hanging around her face, blown into her eyes by the wind. Daniel grinned at this for some reason. A voice somewhere inside him told him that he was a sick man. He ignored it as always. 

               He only had one life to live. Why waste it? 

~*~

               The sailors were eating the evening meal when the captain stood up and announced that they were headed for Tortuga. "Time for a vacation!" said the captain amid the hoots and hollers of his crew. 

               Serenity only sighed and went back to her gruel. It didn't matter to her where they went. _Maybe I can run away,_ she thought, a notion voiced by Graciela a moment later.

               "This is our chance!" she said. "Maybe we can get out of here, once and for all!" 

               Rosalia smiled. "Maybe," she said timidly.

               "It wouldn't hurt to try."

               The tree women knew that they would never make it, but their lived had become a fantasy. If what had happened to them could happen, well…

               Anything could happen. 


	8. Eight: Wild City

A/N- The song is 'My All' by Mariah Carey. Musical diversity, eh? 

I just started writing a Harry Potter DM/BZ fic, so production on this one might be a little slow for a while until I work things out between the two of these stories. Feel free to review on the HP one if you read those, though. Reviews are always appreciated, no matter what story they're on!

~*~

Chapter Eight

Wild City__
    
    ~*~
    
    _I'm thinking of you_
    
    _In my sleepless solitude tonight_
    
    _If it's wrong to love you_
    
    _Then my heart just won't let me be right_
    
    _Cause I've drowned in you_
    
    _And I won't pull through_
    
    _Without you by my side_
    
    _I'd give my all to have_
    
    _Just one more night with you_
    
    _I'd risk my life to feel_
    
    _Your body next to mine_
    
    _Cause I can't go on_
    
    _Living in the memory of our song_
    
    _I'd give my all for your love_
    
    _Tonight_
    
    ~*~
    
                       Tortuga was a city that seemed to beat with the rhythm of a thousand drums, and Serenity was caught up in the center of it. The mazelike narrow cobblestone streets were covered with a dusty, sticky haze that consisted of liquor and dirt and vomit, but the residents of the city ignored it. The people of Tortuga- that means turtle in Spanish- were like a separate race upon themselves. Pirates leered at the busty, cleavage-boasting prostitutes from the doorways of bars and brothels. Serenity looked around for a friendly face, but Rosalia and Graciela had disappeared into the wild throng as soon as they had stepped foot off the boat. The only familiar face, unfortunately, was Daniel's face. Instinct made Serenity's feet run but Daniel's large hand caught her arm rudely and grasped it in an iron fist. Serenity could feel her skin bruising under his touch as he pulled her roughly to him and proceeded to kiss her in the center of the street. Serenity pulled her arm away and placed both hands on his chest in an effort to push him away, but he only seized her wrists and made her twice the prisoner that she had been before. An alcohol-saturated Daniel may have dragged her into the nearest seedy boardinghouse, and a sober Daniel did the same. He threw two coins at the man sitting behind the sagging table that passed as a front desk and pulled Serenity up the stairs and into a small room.
    
                       A narrow bed that was covered in grimy, soiled sheets took up the right half of the room, and a spindly bedside table with a broken candelabra set atop it was placed crookedly next to it. Daniel threw Serenity onto the bed, which sagged under the velocity of her weight, and reached inside his jacket to produce a bottle of rum.
    
                       "Have to get nice and drunk before you rape me, do you?" Serenity spit at him, possessed with the spirit of being in a place so easy to disappear in. 
    
                       "As always," Daniel sneered as Serenity picked herself up off of the bed and kicked at the window midway up on the wall of the room with the heel of her boot. The glass cracked. She seized the candelabra on the bedside table and slammed it against the glass with more strength than she knew she possessed. The stubby candles fell out of their wire holdings as she desperately tried to break the window open. Daniel crossed the room, approaching her as she dropped the candelabra and kicked a large piece of glass out. Serenity hurled her body out of the window as he reached for her waist, her skirt and skin ripping on the shards of glass that remained around the perimeter of the window. She fell two stories and landed in a bloody heap of cotton and sweat on the stone street, almost crushing a dwarf prostitute underneath her weight. The angry, busty little woman glared at her before she brushed off her black lace skirts and red bustier and continued down the street. 
    
                       Serenity picked her buzzing head off of the ground and craned her neck upwards. The upper half of Daniel's body had followed her out the window, along with his liquor bottle, which had shattered in a million pieces next to her on the street and sprayed her body with rum. However, the pirate had not fallen and had already drawn himself back into the room when Serenity stood and began to run. She was sure that he would follow her, deranged stalker type that he was. Serenity picked up her skirts and sprinted down the road as best as she could, ducking into the first bar she came upon. The place, named the Seven Sprites, was filled floor to ceiling with a thick smoke. Through the smog Serenity spotted a window and made her way towards it. She was coughing heavily when she reached it and wiped a circle of dust off it with her sleeve. She dug into the windowpane with her fingernails as she watched the passerby on the street, looking for Daniel, letting him pass before she tried to make her escape. For a quarter of an hour she waited with baited breath by the window, not noticing the leering drunken men that had taken notice of her. They were ignored as she searched for Daniel's face, and after much frustration, she spotted it. Instinct told her to duck but this time Serenity ignored it and watched him. He looked around, searching on the streets, looking for her. He seemed to stand there for an hour as she watched him, but a few moments later he gave up and moved on. Serenity waited ten minutes before she exited the smoky Sprites and gasped for a fresh breath once she was back on the street.
    
                       Soon the desperation of her position hit her fully. She was a woman dressed in heavy skirts, for once, on the streets of a strange, wild city that she didn't know. As Serenity looked sadly down at her inappropriate attire, she decided first to conceal her identity as best as she could. It was disturbingly easy to locate an abandoned set of trousers in a wayward street corner, and hurriedly she flung her skirts in their place and slipped them on. The trousers were too long but they would have to do. She kept on the blouse that she had been wearing with the skirts and stole a hat off the head of a drunken young man. She tucked her locks under it and returned to the streets of Tortuga a man. 
    
                       She was relieved to find that men no longer leered at her in a sexual way, and confidence that she was escaping for good squared her shoulders. Soon it came to her that she would have to find Rosalia and Graciela and save them too, but they would most likely be with the pirates still. Only Graciela had enough guts to stand up to the pirates, but she had been broken so badly when she first came onto the ship and got a taste of what _Vengeance_ life was like. Serenity held little but a dark hope that Rosalia would be, _could_ be strong. She wanted to save these two women who so deserved to be saved, but she didn't want to risk the pirates recognizing her either. _I would want them to save me._
    
                       Determinedly she set out towards the docks, the last place she had seen the two. Some pirates that she hadn't bothered to learn the names of took them in the opposite direction that Daniel had been taking her. When she reached the docks she found no sign of them, as she had expected. A grim resignation that she was searching for two needles in one hell of a haystack came upon her, and she sat down on a nearby wooden bench and buried her face in her hands. She watched the boots pass by for a little while as she thought of what to do. She had to find Graciela and Rosalia. She had to get back to Port Royale. She had to get out of here. She had to get her life back. 
    
                       There was so many things that she had to do.
    
                       Suddenly exhausted, she lifted herself off the bench and began to wander through the streets of Tortuga, not knowing or caring where she was going. She took the road less traveled, which only led her to another fork. Serenity watched the faces pass by but didn't let them register. They were strangers, strangers that didn't mean anything to her.
    
                       A blonde woman in a ridiculously low cut dress being pulled along by an eager black-haired pirate, who's old girlfriend went off sobbing into a brothel. 
    
                       A short man in a hat being seduced by two raven prostitutes.
    
                       A tall brown-haired man followed by a dark-skinned woman and a braided pirate. 
    
                       Two girls pulling one happy man into a boardinghouse. 
    
                       A tall brown-haired man followed by a dark-skinned woman and a braided pirate.
    
                       A tall brown-haired man followed by a dark-skinned woman and a braided pirate.
    
                       The brown-haired man looked at Serenity as she passed. She didn't realize who it was until he was already a hundred yards down the street, deep in the impossible crowd.
    
                       "Will!" she called, to the surprise of a woman's voice issuing from the body that seemingly belonged to a man. "Will!" she had lost sight of him but immediately began to run into the crowd, which was pushing in the opposite direction. She darted to the edge of the crowd and began to push her way rudely through the mass of people, driven by a desperation that she had never felt before. Serenity called his name again and again as she tried to make her way towards him, as she tried to make her way towards a ghost, but fate was not on her side in that particular moment. She ran smack into Daniel, who grabbed her elbows with his impossible strength.
    
                       "Don't run," he told her.
    
                       She didn't. 


	9. Nine: The Snoring of Gibbs

A/N- the song is called 'Death in Slow Motion' and it belongs to Valandora. 

~*~

Chapter Nine

The Snoring of Gibbs __

~*~

_Boiling blood cool it off again until it stops _

_To make all of this _

_Don't be surprised if i kick you when you're down _

_Wish me luck but you don't know what you're saying _

_Just another face in the crowd _

_So beautiful _

_You are found out as quickly as you came _

_Unconventional irrepressible _

_I will always hate to love you _

_Yes i do believe _

_Yes master i do obey_

_ To make boiling blood cools it off _

_Again until it stops_

~*~

               Will's head was pulled around towards the stranger passing him by like there was a wire attached to it. He stumbled through the crowd after Jack for a moment before pulling his head back around and following his friends through the ocean of dirty people that surrounded him. He followed Anamaria and Jack to a bar where Jack busied himself ordering his rum and pulled Anamaria aside.

               "Anamaria," he said quietly under the ruckus of the six bar fights going on at that moment, "It was her, I saw her." 

               "Saw who?" asked Anamaria, her eyebrows coming together over the bridge of her nose.

               "Serenity."

               "Who?" 

               "Serenity, that girl from Port Royale," he said. A confused look crossed the pirate's face and Will, frustrated, clarified himself. "The one that we _didn't_ rescue; the other one. Not Elizabeth." Anamaria's eyebrows went up and she nodded as she realized whom Will was talking about. Will leaned back against the wooden boards of the wall and propped his foot up on one of the lower rungs of a nearby chair. 

               "Ye saw 'er here? In Tortuga?" asked Anamaria skeptically. "Yer strumpet?"

               Will sighed agitatedly and ran his hands through his hair until his fingers reached the crown of his head. "Yes, I saw _Serenity here_ in _Tortuga,_" he answered. "And she is _not_ a strumpet." 

               "Aye," said Anamaria. "But are ye sure it was 'er?" 

               Will sighed. "No."

               "Than what's the fuss?" 

               Convinced that Ana would never understand, and not even wanting to _think_ about what Jack would say, Will walked through one of the brawls to the window and gazed out upon the myriad faces, not even flinching as a glass bottle exploded next to his head. _Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe it was some small, petite pirate with a hat on. It could have not been Serenity easier than it could have been. Serenity's dead. _In some strange way, Will preferred to think of Serenity as dead than as here in Tortuga, where he couldn't do anything about it. He searched the faces relentlessly but she was nowhere to be seen. _What would you do if she were still alive?_ Will wondered to himself. _Could you face her? Would you have the guts?_

Will slid his fingertips from where they were digging into the windowpane forward until they touched the warm glass. He heard a blowing sound by his ear and acrid smoke burned his eyes. He squinted to his left to see a smiling prostitute standing next to him, artfully holding a cigarette between her middle and index fingers. She dangled the tip of the cigarette close to Will's hair as she smiled at him. "Lonely?" she asked in a patronizing way. Will couldn't help his eyes as they dawdled down her- _voluptuous_ figure, most of which was spilling over the black lace that adorned the top of her red and black striped bodice. She wore a necklace with a skull on it, which dangled down and rested between her collarbones. Will averted his eyes back to hers, which were obscenely lined in kohl thicker than Jack's. 

               "No," he said, embarrassed for himself. "I'm fine." The woman smirked at him and walked past him to her next potential costumer, shoving her shoulder between the wings of his back as she passed. Will's shoulders reflexively went up until he looked like he was shrugging to himself, and he returned his attention to the window. Jack was still busy with the bartender, looking agitated as he miserably counted out gold coins onto the nicked surface of the bar. Anamaria was leaning over his shoulder, shrilly trying to barter with the bartender at the same time Jack was.

               Seeing that this venture was hopeless, Will turned from the window and begin to pick his way through the haphazard arrangements of tables and chairs as he began to look for Gibbs, who he knew would not be far away. Sure enough he found the old gizzard keeping company with his mug, suds dripping from the lip of the cup. When he lifted it, it left a wet ring upon the surface of the table. Will pulled out a chair and sat down across from him, folding his arms onto the table and resting his head on them. Gibbs tapped the top of his head with the bottom of his mug.

               "Tired, eh?" said the old man.

               "How did you guess?" said Will. 

               "Ah, Tortuga can be a bit much the first time around," said Mr. Gibbs knowingly as he cast a glance at a scarlet woman in the corner, "but believe me, once you get used to it, Tortuga is the greatest place on earth." Will could think of ten places he would rather be than here at this moment, but he didn't wish to dampen the man's fervor. Gibbs heartily set his mug on the table and let out a satisfied _ah._

               "How long do you think we'll be here?" asked Will. Gibbs cast a glance over towards where Jack and Anamaria were still trying to barter with the bartender. 

               "A long time yet," Gibbs answered

               "Don't look for me," Will said as he stood up and made his way towards the door of the bar.

               "Where're ye goin?" Gibbs called after him as he ran out onto the street and disappeared into the mass of people. As soon as he was outside of the bar all the heroic feelings that had swelled in his heart a moment before disappeared as he realized how hopeless his search was. Anyone could be Serenity, and that was if she was even here! Will bit his lip heavily and sighed. Two pairs of hands grasped his head and a third brought a liquor bottle to his lips. The liquid warmed his senses as he peered up into the faces of three smiling women.

               "Come with us," coaxed the most attractive of the three, a smiling brunette with hard eyes that had something of Serenity in them. The other two were blonde and tan but something about the third women entranced Will- for a moment.

               "No, I can't," he said, almost reluctantly pushing them away. He stumbled back towards the door of the bar and met Jack and Anamaria coming out of the door, Gibbs close behind them, holding their crates of rum. Jack looked pissed off, having emptied most of his purse out into the bartender's hands for the rum. Anamaria looked grim also, but Gibbs look merry as ever, a pipe dangling from his mouth. 

               "Where are you going?" asked Will.

               "Now, that's a stupid question," said Jack.

               "Back to the ship," said Anamaria at the same time. 

~*~

               After much argument between, Jack, Ana, and the rest of the crew, it was decided that the rum would be put onto the ship, and they would remain at dock for the night and sleep in one of the Tortugan hostels. Jack, Gibbs, and Will shared a room, and the rest of the crew crammed themselves into three other rooms except for Anamaria, who would rather sleep in the closet than smell like a man the next morning. However, soon she was in bed next to Jack and sleeping soundly. Over the racket of the snoring of Gibbs, Will explained his situation to Jack in full, from the beginning to the very end. Jack, oddly stretched out on top of the sheets with his boots still on, put a hand to his chin and pondered what his friend had told him. 

               "So you think she's here," he said.

               "I know she's here," Will said, hoping he sounded surer than he felt. It had to be Serenity. No one else made him feel that way, not even Elizabeth. And besides, Elizabeth wouldn't be here anyway. There was no chance she would be. 

               "Well, then, you have to find her," Jack said obviously.

               Will made an agitated noise. "I don't know where to start!" he said in a harsh whisper, cradling his forehead in his hands. He too still had his boots on, but they were resting on the floor from where he was sitting on the bed, his fingers raking through his hair as he tried to make a plan of what to do. "I don't know what to do."

               "Then I suppose I'll have to help you," said Jack, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing. The braids and beads in his hair clicked together as they fell off of his shoulders. Anamaria, subconsciously sensing that the rest of the bed was free, promptly turned over and sprawled across it. 

               "Why?" said Will miserably.

               "Because I know the city better than you do," stated Jack, walking towards the door. "Now lets go." 


	10. Ten: Prey

The song is _Kill Me Quickly _by…guess who…THRICE!!! Yay. I read _The Shining _by Stephen King and if you need a good scare I highly recommend it. It's a little thick but totally excellent. 

~*~

Chapter Ten

Prey__

~*~
    
    _I'm sick of the stabbing_
    
    _I'm sick of the breaking_
    
    _I'm sick of the bleeding until we fall down_
    
    _Sick of this circle of death that we dance through _
    
    _Again and again, just lay me in the ground_
    
    _Let's fall asleep together_
    
    _Hold me darling 'cause I'm scared_

_And I can't do this alone_
    
    _But I need _
    
    _Your heartbeat _
    
    _To haunt me_
    
    _Your cold lips to breathe_
    
    _A promise that, tomorrow _

We'll wake up somewhere new 

~*~

               Tortuga by night was far worse than Tortuga by day. The wisps of smoke issuing from the chimneys of the buildings blotted out the stars. The heavy smoke formed a cloud over the city, a watchful, acrid cloud over the city. A drunken laugh rang out over the streets, which had emptied slightly, giving Tortuga a horrible feeling of repressed loneliness. The prostitutes had retreated back into the shadows and caught their prey from the darkness. However, Jack seemed unaffected by the eerie change in the mood and strode confidently through the streets. Will hurried to keep up with him, even though the crowd was not the roiling mass that it had been before. Green haze hovered around the lit torches that lined the sides of the buildings and cast domes of light onto the streets. Dust still rose from footfalls before, and Will felt suffocated by the smog. A carriage rode by, and even the carriage seemed drunk, as it teetered dangerously as it ripped around corners and the wheels on the right side rose two feel off the ground. It kicked up dust into Will's face and made him cough, but still he followed Jack. 

               "Where are we even going?" Will choked out. 

               "To see Zoë," said Jack nonchalantly. "Zoë knows all," he added with a wink. 

               Soon they came to- surprise, surprise- a brothel. Will entered it carefully, as if a ten headed monster would grab him from behind as soon as he stepped over the threshold of the door. _A bottle of rum for each of its heads. _

               The air inside the foyer of the building was cleaner than the air outside, even though it smelled of alcohol and incense and perfume. Will stood carefully next to the door as Jack strode across the small room as if to inspect it, and then returned. As they waited- Will wasn't sure what for- he glanced through an open door at the head of the room. Several women were inside, smoking and drinking and gossiping just as any normal twenty-year-old woman might. However, these girls wore the heavy makeup and ridiculous dress of their kind. They were obviously prostitutes in their off time. Will averted his glance and turned instead to Jack, who was nonchalantly humming the only line of the _Pirate Song_ that he knew, over and over again. They waited for a quarter of an hour before a woman entered the room, ignoring them at first but then coming over to them.

               "Whaddaya want?" she asked, one hand on her hip and the other holding a cigarette. She glanced towards Will, the pile of fake yellow curls on top of her head teetering dangerously with the motion. Acknowledging the rather frightened look on his face, she grinned. "First time?" 

               Stunned by her inappropriate question, Will gaped at her. He looked rather like a fish out of water, as Jack would tell him later.

               "We want to see Zoë," said Jack.

               The woman glared at him. "She's indisposed," she told Jack, not pronouncing it quite correctly. 

               Jack asked her name, and she said it was Sandra, and then Jack told her that when Zoë was "un-indisposed" to tell her that Sparrow wanted to see her. Sandra rolled her eyes and pranced out of the room, coming dangerously close to lighting the taffeta of her skirt on fire with the lit end of her cigarette. Jack gave Will a knowing look and then they waited. 

               Zoë wasn't that long coming. She was of rather average height, slightly pudgy, and had a mountain of black hair atop her head. Red lipstick smothered her mouth and her eyes were also lined in black, and overall she looked a little frightening, but she appeared to know Jack very well and embraced him before inquiring what the hell he wanted.

               "My friend has a bit of a problem," said Jack, motioning towards Will. Zoë looked at him and then quickly dismissed him as she turned back to Jack. 

               "What is it?" 

               "He's lookin' for someone," said Jack.

               "Two someones," corrected Will. "She's with somebody," he told Jack. 

               "Who?" asked Zoë. 

               "Yeah, who?" asked Jack.

               "A woman named Serenity. She's with a pirate from the ship the _Bloody Vengeance- _his name is Daniel. Have you seen them?"

               "There's a lot of pirates in this town, boy," said Zoë, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag on it, "and a lot of Daniels." 

               Will sighed, wondering why he had ever trusted Jack to help him in the first place. He began to describe the two of them at length, and Zoë listened silently. The cigarette was at her lips again as Will finished and put his hands inside his pockets as he waited for her reaction. Zoë tapped the ash off the end of her cigarette and crushed the butt under the toe of her ratty satin slipper. 

               "I think I might actually be able to help you," Zoë said slowly, glancing from Jack to Will and then back again. "But you know me, Jack," she continued, "I'll want something in return."

               "Anything, darling," said Jack, making a grandiose sweeping motion with his arm. 

               "Can I have a kiss?" she asked. "One…from _each_ of you." 

               Will tried not to grimace at her proposition, but it was hard controlling his facial expressions with Zoe's eyes boring into his own. He screwed his eyes shut and gave her a quick peck on the lips, wiping his own off with the back of his sleeve after she had rolled her eyes and turned away. A faint stain of red lipstick appeared on the white cloth of his sleeve. Meanwhile, Jack gave Zoë his own kiss- rather enthusiastically, too- and then he placed his hat back on his head. 

               "Now, tell us all you know!" ordered Jack. 

               "I… _saw_ a man in her earlier that met that description," said Zoë. "He said he wanted to have a little fun before he left tonight."

               "We're too late," said Will softly.

               "Sorry, my boy," said Zoë, "that's all I know." 

               Will nodded and thanked the woman before exiting the smoky building and finding himself once again on the streets of a strange city. "Sorry about that, mate," said Jack, catching up to him. 

               Will sighed. "Not your fault," he said.

               "I know," Jack replied. "Wasn't blaming it on myself." 

               "I can't believe that we're too late," Will said, glancing out in the direction of the dark ocean. "We were so close!" an angry bite crept under his voice as he tried to keep his eyes from filling with hot tears, but he was too late to stop the tears as well. "I can't believe it," he said. Jack stood their awkwardly, his hat perched jauntily on top of his head as he watched Will pound his left fist into his right palm several times. "Too late."

~*~

               Serenity grasped the wooden railing of the ship as she watched the skyline of Tortuga dissapear under the round horizon. That was one city she never wished to return to. She glanced around the deck of the ship and noticed that Rosalia and Graciela were nowhere to be found. They must have been…something must have happened to them in Tortuga. She pounded her fist on the top rail and began weeping angry tears into the salty ocean below. It was too late…too late for so many things. Her only friends were gone, her heart was damaged and she might have been so close…

               But it was too late for all that now. All that mattered now was surviving another day.


	11. Eleven: Everlasting Heat

The song is called _He Died Of…_ and it's by a very talented local group named No Hollywood Ending. Sorry it's taking me so long to get these chapters up, but I've been sick since before Thanksgiving, first with a virus and then with two blown eardrums…yeah. Not pretty. So please forgive me, school is also taking up a lot of my time and hopefully I'll have more time to write…now that drama is starting…so I'll get them up when I can. :0) Sorry y'all! 

~*~

Chapter Eleven

Everlasting Heat __

~*~

_One cut for every kiss_

_One slice to my skin for every time_

_I wrote the words I love you _

_For your deceiving eyes_

_One more little slit just cause your not around_

_To stop me from doing this to myself_

_These drops of blood run down my arms_

_And into my palms_

_Those lovely tears roll down your cheeks_

_When you realize what it is that you have done_

_I'm dying to know what happened between you and him_

I'm dying 

~*~

               Elizabeth sat at her mahogany desk, the soft silk waves of her ivory dressing gown spilling around her chair. She absentmindedly twirled her quill between her fingers and examined the point briefly, carefully; making sure no ink stained her fingers. The sharp edge of the quill had dulled a little, but she was too lazy to sharpen it. The quill was left on the desk on top of a half-written letter to Will. Once again Elizabeth had attempted to put her thoughts into words but that was not something she was good at. 

               She walked across the room and carefully opened the two glass-paneled doors that led out onto her balcony. With a glance behind her to make sure that none of the maids had heard the doors open, she hurried out onto the balcony and shut them behind her. 

               The Caribbean night was cool, but the breeze still carried a hint of the everlasting heat. Elizabeth drew her thin nightdress more tightly around herself as she walked over to a rose plant that she had been growing. The blossoms were still closed save for one, which had opened early and was beginning to wilt at the corners. Elizabeth knew that in the morning it's browning petals would be spotted with crystal dew, a sight spoiled only by the death that so obviously haunted the flower. This thought made her depressed and she turned the blossom away with the back of her hand. She crossed the balcony to the railing and set her fingers on the smooth surface, the ivy leaves that were growing up the trellis tickling her fingers. The landscape that you could see from there was magnificent. The green mountains rose in the distance, blocking out the stars. The moon shone bright, leaving a silver trail on the ocean. Elizabeth stood and watched the waves for a little while, watching them froth and curl onto the beach. She picked out the stone road, the bridge, and different buildings in the town that she knew. The world looked so different at night!

               Finally her eyes found the fort and she sighed when she saw the Union Jack flying high above the towers of the stronghold. It whipped around in the wind, reminding Elizabeth of those days…they seemed so far off now, those days when she had watched the Jolly Roger whip about in the breeze…

               The hunger for adventure had once again awoken in the governor's daughter, but Elizabeth was still distracted by thoughts of the Commodore Norrington. Would he never give up on her? Would he never accept that her heart belonged to William Turner? "I will be Elizabeth Turner," she said defiantly to the night, "_Never _Elizabeth Norrington."

~*~

               Days passed slowly on the ocean, and the horizon revolved around the _Black Pearl _like a never-ending kaleidoscope with changing clouds. Will was leaning against the rail of the ship, thinking about Serenity once again and staring out to the ends of the ocean. The land that they had left behind had disappeared days ago, and the smoke that usually followed a ship out from Tortuga had also disappeared. All that was left was the memories, pleasant and not. Still raging inside was Will's internal argument with himself over whether or not he had seen Serenity that day, or if it had not been her. He was feeling very confused and agitated and it took him a moment to realize that something had appeared on the horizon and was coming towards them at a steady rate.

               "Jack," he called behind him. 

               "Yeah?" answered the captain. 

               "There's something on the horizon," Will answered, walking over to where Jack was digging through his pockets, looking for something. Not finding what he was looking for, Jack glanced up at the horizon and squinted at the foreign object. Jack shrugged.

               "Send someone up there, then," he said dully, as if things like these happened every day.

               Will glanced around the deck and found his immediate area empty, so he decided to climb up into the nest himself.  A lazy wind buffeted the ropes as he climbed, remembering not to look down and fighting the temptation to do so. He reached the nest a few minutes later, swinging from the ropes into the nest with an agility that would have surprised him had he seen himself doing this a year ago. But he had no time to dwell on how much things had changed, and he reached inside his belt to produce the telescope that he always kept there. It lengthened easily in his hand and it fit against his eye as he looked out over the ocean, and over the myriad waves to see…a ship.

~*~

               "All hands on deck!" Anamaria called shrilly down into the bowels of the _Pearl._ "Wake up, ye scallywags! We've got a ship, now!" She kicked the trap for good measure, the brass handle on top of it rattling with the force of the motion. Jack was doing an excited little dance over at the wheel, glaring through his own telescope at the ship as he kept his left hand on the black wood of the wheel. 

               "Aha!" Jack called triumphantly. "She's flyin' a Roger! We can take her! Load up the guns!" he said, shouting this last to the newly materialized crew. Half of them were rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, but the others looked reasonably alert. 

               "Ye 'eard him!" Ana prodded one sailor whose face was half covered in shaving soap. "Load up the guns!" 

               A nervous energy filled Will as he hurried below with the rest of the crew and began lining up cannon balls next to the loading holes of one of the big guns. It took about three men to operate just one of them, and there was about ten cannons lining each side of the ship. They were close enough to know that the ship- which was flying the Jolly Roger, as Jack had said- would be passing them on their right side had they been standing towards the bow of the ship with their backs facing the stern. So the ten guns on the right side of the ship were being filled with cannonballs at that very moment, and extras were being brought to them for when the guns were emptied. After most of the loading was finished, Will returned to the boat deck again, which was populated with half of the crew to do the deck fighting. The others remained below with the guns. Will's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword as he walked across the deck to where Jack was standing, excited, keeping his eyes on the ship which was closing in steadily. 

               "She's a big'un!" said Jack happily. "I hope she dun' get too damaged in th'blows so we can't take 'er!" 

               "Or that we don't get too damaged in the blows so that she can't take us," Will added cynically. Jack looked at him sideways, the corner of his mouth twitching down, the brim of his hat tilting with the motions of his head. He shook it once, making the beads on his braids rattle. 

               "Or, that she dun' get too damaged in th'blows so we can't take 'er," he repeated, and smiled. "Battle's at sea," he said contentedly, "nothin' like it." 

~*~

               "That's a ship, isn't it," Serenity said dryly to the silent sailor, her only friend. 

               "Yup," he said, keeping his gaze straight ahead at the ship. It had appeared that morning, much to the excitement of the other sailors, but they never told her anything. She wasn't important enough. 

               "We're- _you_'re gonna have to fight it, aren't you," she said. 

               "Yup," he answered.

               "What's your name?"

               "Christian."

               "I'm"- 

               "Serenity." He looked at her sideways. "I know." 

               "Oh," she said awkwardly. "Well…good luck," she said, meaning in the imminent fight ahead.

               "Battle's at sea," he said, oddly relaxed. "Nothin' like it." 


	12. Twelve: Independence

The song is 'The Abolition of Man' by Thrice. If you've never heard them you really should check them out. They're a great band! 

I'm sorry this chapter is sooo short, but I liked where it ended. The next one should be up fairly soon, but only if you check out Thrice ^^^ . 

~*~

Chapter Twelve 

Independence  __
    
    ~*~
    
    _Wake up everyone _
    
    _It's not too late _
    
    _To save the remnants of _
    
    _Our hearts stop giving up _
    
    _Our last shattered love _
    
    _Our only chance to find the meaning of _
    
    _The beat beneath the blood _
    
    ~*~
    
                       The first cannon fell with the sun, landing on the deck of the _Black Pearl_ and sending ropes of flame up the ropes leading to the crows' nest. "Get that out!" Jack called to no one in particular. Will grabbed a bucket and went below for some water. The discharges of the cannons off the sides of the _Pearl_ were shaking the entire gut of the boat. Besides the roar of the guns, however, there was no noise. The bowels of the ship were silent, save for the distant thunder. Will hurried to fill the bucket and returned to the deck as quickly as possible. He tossed the brackish salty water onto the ropes, extinguishing the blaze. He could not tell the extent of the damage in the growing dusk, though, and he turned his mind away from the ropes and back to the battle at hand.
    
                       Had it been lighter out, Will would have found the ship to be none other than the _Bloody Vengeance_, and he would have had to live with the irony that his ship was currently firing cannons at the ship that Serenity was on. They would, unbeknownst to themselves, fight each other to death's end to win a battle that no one really could. Right now the _Vengeance _was just another pirate ship to be captured and raided. Knowing how Jack was a great pirate with an independent streak as wide as the Atlantic itself, Will doubted that he would take the other ship in to make a fleet should they win. Instead, the ship would be sold in Tortuga or some other shipping town, and the money would surely go towards reimbursing the ever-waning supply of rum on the _Pearl._ 
    
                       He didn't pause to think about what would happen if they didn't win this battle. 
    
                       A cannon fell somewhere aft to the ship, but they wouldn't be missing for long. The _Pearl_ had just blasted a hole as high as the ceiling of Elizabeth's home in the side of the other ship and he could hear angry yells from the enemy deck. 
    
                       One of those yells, indeed, sounded _oddly_ feminine. 
    
    ~*~
    
                       Serenity had just uttered the only curse she had ever uttered in her entire life, and then some, as she stood on the deck of the _Bloody Vengeance_ clutching her arm. The ship that was firing at them- Serenity had begun thinking of them as the enemy when she realized she wasn't on the _Vengeance's_ side- had hit the side of their ship and a flying piece of debris had smacked her arm. It was twisted oddly- probably broken, but there was no one on this ship that could or would help here if she opened her mouth. So she didn't. She snuck down below to a place that felt relatively safe to wait out the storm outside and hoped that no one would notice she was missing. They wouldn't. 
    
                       The hole was dank and musty and smelly and a rat crawled out of the corner when Serenity entered, but it had a window that she could look out. She could see the other ship from the porthole- a dark mass blotting out the stars and blending in with the sky and the sea. The knot in her stomach was pounding in sync with the noises in her head, and her stomach muscles were doing strange contractions. The nerves had gotten the best of her and she longed to lie down and cry, sob like a baby, but she knew she couldn't, not here, not now, not when her dignity was at stake with no one but herself.
    
                       "Save me," she whispered to the black lump on the horizon. "Send help." 
    
    ~*~
    
                       They had gotten too close. Pirates from the other ship were swinging aboard the _Pearl,_ hollering a fearsome battle cry that would strike a horrific chord in Will's heart later but failed to at that exact moment. His sword was in his hand and they were one, as he swung wildly with it. Anamaria screeched and lunged towards a pirate, he fell with a _thump_ on the deck of the _Pearl. _"Aiiii," she called to the corpse on the deck. 
    
                       Will was probably screaming too but he couldn't hear a damn thing as he cut a man down. Soon he found another and they were engaged in a fearsome battle. Jab left, parry right, step- Will remembered when he fought Jack in the blacksmith's shop. At least it had been light in there. The darkness and loneliness out here on the plate glass ocean was nerve shattering.
    
                       Finally Will felt his blade hit home, but hastily drew it out in revulsion of what he had done, a revulsion to be forgotten in the next moment when he spotted an almost timid looking pirate shape lurking near the rail of the deck. Will grabbed his dagger and flung it at the shape. It fell into the ocean.
    
                       Serenity would never see Christian again, and the glass was broken.


	13. Thirteen: Stir of Irony

The song belongs to Finch and it's called _What it is to Burn,_ which is awesome both as a song and in the lyrics too. Still not as good as Thrice. :P 

For those of you who are not a fan of my angst, here you go. This chapter is for y'all. 

~*~

Chapter Thirteen

Stir of Irony

~*~
    
    _Is there no sympathy, from the sun_
    
    _The sky's still fire_
    
    _But I am safe in here, from the world outside_
    
    _So tell me what's the price to pay for glory_
    
    _Like a bad star, I'm falling faster down to her _
    
    _She's the only one who knows_
    
    _What it is to burn_
    
    _Today is fire_
    
    _And she burns_ 
    
    ~*~
    
                       Sleep had stolen a few moments- it couldn't have been more than a few, not with the racket outside- but when Serenity opened her eyes again she thought she could see a blood red stain along the horizon, strung through with hints of gold and orange. The sun. She reached out a finger and gently touched the windowpane and then the cool rough glass, brushing the grains of sand away. A view of the sea through the slightly distorted glass stirred Serenity's imagination to what was happening above-decks- the sea was littered with debris and…unpleasant things. Without emotion and by some stir of irony she saw Christian's hat floating by in the water. So many were dead. Why grieve the death of another? 
    
                       But these thoughts…that was not the way she was. She didn't realize that she was crying. All these months she had tried not to think about how Will was dead…killed by a guest in her own household. How had she allowed emotion to stay away for so long? 
    
                       "Will," she whimpered to the window, "Will…" 
    
    ~*~
    
                       The tide of the battle had turned in the midnight hour, when sailors from the _Pearl_ had swung onside the _Vengeance- _they could read the name now in the faint light- and took the battle to the other decks. Will had given up counting the number of men he had slain and the number that had almost slain him when he looked into the eyes of a man he had just sunk his sword into. The corpse fell back, jerking the sword out of Will's hand, and he almost let it go as he was lost in the change the eyes had taken, from alive to terror to glassy to dead. 
    
                       He would never get used to killing and he supposed that was a good thing…but out here it was every man for himself. 
    
                       Will could see Jack jumping around, swinging his sword about, almost dancing, although the mad, steely glint of battle and determination never left his eye. The blade of his sword reflected the dim light just so; making the steel look like it was glowing. It glowed red. Will turned away and began a ferocious game of swordplay with a sailor that continued for twenty minutes until one of them was slain. Will stood above the body and tried not to look at the eyes. _Don't look at the eyes. Damn you, don't you dare look at the eyes! _
    
                       "Surrender!" a cry rang out over the ocean and seemed to echo off the horizon itself. Jack had the captain of the other boat pinned against the bow of his ship, his sword grazing his throat, threatening momentary death. "Put down your weapons," said the captain. Jack was grinning maniacally, as usual. 
    
                       Bewildered, the _Vengeance_ sailors set down their weapons and knelt with their hands up and their heads down. 
    
                       "Only a coward sacrifices his dignity for his life, mate," Jack said softly in the captain's ear. 
    
                       "Let me die with honor," he replied.
    
                       Serenity saw a body fall past her porthole at great speed from the deck of the ship, and even she could hear the cheer mixed with cries of despair that came from overhead. It was then that she opened the door to her hole and stepped out into the dawn. 
    
    ~*~
    
                       "Loot!" Jack cried happily an hour later. Half the crew was working on repairing and cleaning up the _Pearl, _while the other half was looting a very slowly sinking _Vengeance­_. Late in the battle a cannonball had exploded at a tender spot in the boat's exterior, striking a hole and causing the lower compartments to fill with water. "Hurry mates, don't want the rum to get wet." He then walked over to the captain's quarters and began emptying it of jewelry, money, and maps. 
    
                       Will wandered down below, being careful not to get lost in the labyrinthine corridors below decks. He kept track of every turn and had seemed to reach a sort of main hall when he heard a noise. It was close; all the other sounds were distant from above. He paused, the heel of his boot shifting on the rotting wood floor. He could hear the faraway rush of water from below. 
    
                       Footsteps padded along. Whoever it was had heard him before he had heard it. Will drew his sword, covered with crusty blood, and sprinted up behind a sailor that had been trying to run in the opposite direction. Will grabbed him from behind, knocked his hat off and placed his sword against his throat. 
    
                       "Don't move," he said. 
    
                       "Wasn't planning on it," said Serenity. 
    
    ~*~
    
                       The sunshine warmed their faces, their hands brushed together, not touching for more than an instant, the feeling of cold steel against her throat slipped away as a lump rose in his. They fought madly inside to hold the imminent storm clouds at bay, needing an unprejudiced moment to sort things out between themselves.
    
                       "I can't believe it," said Will for the millionth time.
    
                       "I know," Serenity replied. 
    
                       "I thought you were dead."
    
                       "Me too." 
    
                       "You've been here the whole time."
    
                       "I have. You've been _there_ the whole time."
    
                       "I know…" 
    
                       "How did this happen?"
    
                       "I don't remember anymore." 
    
                       "I don't even remember my name."
    
                       Will paused, hesitated, and then drew Serenity close to him in an embrace. She wrapped her arms up under his, clutching at his shoulders and at the ends of his hair with her long brown fingers. She buried her face in his curls and added more salt to the sea below, weeping tears of hope and hopelessness before Jack realized that there was another woman on board. 


	14. Fourteen: Small Ocean

The song belongs to Thursday and it's called _Signals Over The Air. _Thanks to everyone who is reading! I love you all. Muah. And I'm sorry the formatting was so messed up on the last chapter, and I have no idea how this one is going to turn out, so if anyone knows how I can fix it drop a line and let me know. Thanks!

~*~

Chapter Fourteen

Small Ocean 
    
    ~*~
    
    _Is this how it feels,_
    
    _When you don't even fit into your own skin?_
    
    _And it's getting tighter_
    
    _ Everyday I'm getting smaller_
    
    _If I keep holding my breath_
    
    _I'm going to disappear_
    
    _When you say my name_
    
    _I want to split it from your lips_
    
    _And hide like whispers in the rain_
    
    ~*~
    
                       "Women," muttered Mr. Gibbs. "They're bad luck, I tell ye."
    
                       Will shushed him from the other side of the room, where he sat with a dazed look on his face, one arm around Serenity, who was wearing the same expression. She was clutching the folds of his shirt between her fingers as if it would hold her down to this earth, to keep her floating up to the heavens above. The only thing that was stopping the tears from falling were the half-closed lids of her eyes, blinking repeatedly as she fought both weeping and sleeping. Waves of exhaustion were passing over her body, which seemed terribly frail to Will. His hand went to her hair and he stroked it absentmindedly as he half-listened to Jack, Ana, Mr. Gibbs and the rest of the crew go over the day's loot. Jack was gleeful; having found a generous cache of rum on board the _Vengeance_ before the whole bloody thing had sank. They had lit its flag afire and tossed it out to the ocean before sailing away from the wreckage. 
    
                       Time passed slowly but Will didn't care. He listened to Jack ramble on, to Anamaria voicing her opinions in a loud but somewhat subdued voice, to Mr. Gibbs warning repeatedly of the jinx of having a woman- nonetheless _two _women- on board.
    
                       Will craned his neck down to check on Serenity. Her eyes were closed and her breathing had slowed, but as he moved her lids fluttered open. "Are you asleep?" Will asked rather stupidly.
    
                       "I'm asleep," she answered, and in a moment her statement was true as she again returned to slumber cradled against Will's body. He allowed himself a small grin and gently maneuvered his arm under her legs so he could carry her to a bed where she could get some real rest. The dark passages of the _Pearl_ had never seemed so homey before, and Will felt at peace as he carefully walked down to the bunks, making sure Serenity's head didn't knock against the wooden walls as they went. He laid her carefully on a vacant bunk and tucked the thin threadbare blankets around her small rounded shoulders. 
    
                       He sat watching her for a few minutes, crouched next to her bed. Exhaustion came over him too, stronger than he had ever felt, but he felt at peace. Will sat next to her bed and let his head rest on the wooden bed frame, and there he dropped off into a deep and probably uncomfortable sleep. 
    
    ~*~
    
                       They had taken prisoners, thrown them in the brig, and told them not to go anywhere. Later that night Jack wandered down to see if any of them could be of any use to him at all. If they weren't willing to cooperate then he could always sell them in Tortuga. Funny place. You could sell anything there for money. 
    
                       "Alrighty then," said Jack, announcing his presence. They were a miserable bunch of prisoners, they were, a point tactfully pointed out by Anamaria in less polite words.
    
                       "They look like crud scraped off a donkey's ass," she said. 
    
                       Jack walked up to the wall of the cell and addressed the sailor nearest to him. "What's your name?" he demanded. 
    
                       "Daniel," said the sailor.
    
                       It's a small ocean after all.
    
    ~*~
    
                       Serenity awoke to golden light spilling through the porthole and into the bunkroom. She smiled, stretched luxuriously, and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Her bare toes brushed against her shoes, which someone had removed, and then touched skin. 
    
                       "Will!" she said happily, finding him slumped against her bed. He opened his eyes slowly, the light hurting his eyes. 
    
                       "Morning," he said. 
    
                       Serenity perched on the edge of her bed, smiling like an idiot, unable to keep her happiness inside. She felt like she was going to burst and dance around screaming that she was finally safe and h- well, almost home. This was good enough for now, too good. She hugged Will's shoulders tightly and sighed happily into his shirt. "I'm so happy that you're here," she said. 
    
                       "I'm happy that you're alive," he said. "I was sure they would have killed you, or worse…" 
    
                       "They did do worse," she said, the smile fading a bit but still lingering. "But I'm still here, aren't I?" 
    
                       Gently Will pushed her off him and held her at arms length, his hands cupping her shoulders easily. _They did do worse._ Suddenly he knew that she had been raped and hurt, some intuition told him so. He took a moment to take in her appearance and try to measure how much damage they had done. Bastards. She was wearing an overlarge white shirt, standard for sailors, but the neck was too big and one side had slipped over her shoulder while she was sleeping. Her hair was tied back in a piece of twine, but grimy pieces had fallen out around her face. Her trousers were overlong, and the ends of them were pooled around her feet and caked with dirt. The boots were at least three sizes too big for her and they were laced as tight as they could go. But, her eyes were bright and happy and her smile was wider than he had ever seen, and he drew her to him again and cradled her against him like he had in the doctor's house on the day of the hurricane so long ago when they were back in Port Royale. 
    
                       "We're going to be okay, Serenity," he said.
    
                       "We're already okay," she replied.
    
    ~*~
    
                       Jack had decided that he had no further use for the prisoners, and as their captain was dead he decided to turn his ship around and return to Tortuga, and set them loose there. "Maybe I can get some rum for 'em, eh?" he said happily as he stood in front of the enormous crates he had lifted off the _Vengeance. _"Ye can ne'er have too much rum."
    
                       "Never!" said Mr. Gibbs happily. 
    
                       Serenity decided that she wanted to help and began cooking in the kitchen, providing a welcome break for Mr. Gibbs and edible food for the rest of the crew. She didn't know much about cooking but it didn't take much to beat the rum-and-gruel diet that they had lived on while Gibbs was master chef. However, it was of Jack's opinion that the rum-and-gruel was just fine for the prisoners to live on. Minus the rum part, of course.
    
                       So it was in that fashion that Serenity found herself face to face with Daniel yet again. But she wasn't afraid. All that was standing between her and Will was a few flimsy wooden boards, and this made her feel safe. She didn't speak to Daniel, and even if she had something to say to him she would not have let herself do it. He wasn't worth her time and he never had been. 
    
                       Upon her return to the deck she sought out the object of her strength and approached him quietly from behind. She rested her chin on his shoulder. "Daniel's one of the prisoners," she said. 
    
                       "Then you shouldn't go down there anymore," he replied, concerned. "Get Ana to bring to food, or me. I'll do it." 
    
                       "No, I'm fine," Serenity insisted. "It's just so strange to have all three of us on this boat…_together,_ again…almost like back home."
    
                       Will was silent for a moment. "This whole thing must have been so terrible for you," he said, not knowing any other way to put it.
    
                       Serenity let out a laugh- but it wasn't a happy one. "I know," she said. "I'm a widow…how strange is that?" Tears welled up in her eyes and she didn't try to stop them from falling. Connor would never return to her, and his death was one that she would grieve the rest of her life.
    
                       "We could never replace him," Will said, trying to comfort her.
    
                       "I know…" Serenity said. She pulled her head away and looked up at Will.  "He would want us to be happy," she said. An undertone in her voice said that she was completely certain of this fact. She knew that Connor had loved her. She had loved him as well, with all her heart, and a part of her had been broken when he had died. But, she lived on, and the brokenness was beginning to mend, and she felt she had Connor's approval. Serenity could feel him smiling down at her at that moment.
    
                       "He would want us to be happy," Will agreed, but a small voice spoke up in the back of his head.
    
                       Connor would want them to be happy. Elizabeth, however, was another story.
    
                       Another story entirely.


	15. Fifteen: The Commodore's Departure

I'm trying a different kind of doc for this chapter.we'll see if it turns out OK *crosses fingers* Sorry about the last two chapters.if I figure out what went wrong I'll fix 'em. I know they're awful hard to read! I apologize. Thanks for sticking with me through them though.I'll fix them as soon as I can.  
  
The song is called "Silver and Cold," for all you AFI fans out there.  
  
~*~   
  
Chapter Fifteen  
  
The Commodore's Departure   
  
~*~  
  
Light like the flutter of wings  
  
Feel your hollow voice rushing into me As you're longing to sing So I will paint you in silver I will wrap you in cold I will lift up your voice as I sink Cold in life's throws  
  
I'll fall asleep for you  
  
I only ask you turn away I only ask you turn away as they seep into me Oh my beautiful one ~*~  
  
"Commodore," said Elizabeth, trying to keep her voice steady and even to not betray how frustrated she was at him. Of all the days she had picked to go out walking, it had to be the day that Norrington was also up and about. If she hadn't been fretting over what she was going to say to him if he decided to propose to her again, she would have noticed how much more attractive he looked then usual. He had lost the wig momentarily, and instead of wearing the heavy coat that proclaimed him as a Commodore he was wearing the regular light shirt and breeches of an ordinary sailor.  
  
"Please, Elizabeth," he said, taking her soft hand in his own and kissing it gentlemanly. "Call me James."  
  
Elizabeth nodded rather curtly and twirled her parasol around on her shoulder. She could hear the rustle of her maid's dress a step behind her fill the silence as she waited for the commodore to say something.  
  
"It's a lovely day out," was his way out of the uncomfortable silence.  
  
"Indeed," she replied. "A rare one." It had rained steadily for the past week and Elizabeth had grown tired of being cooped up inside her enormous home, all alone. So she had elected to take her maidservant and come out to town for a walk. She couldn't have guessed that the commodore would also be out, off duty, and wearing something other than his work clothes.  
  
"I would be honored if you would join me for tea in the café," said James, gesturing with his left hand towards a cozy looking building across the road.  
  
The maid piped up at his suggestion. "Miss Swann, your father wanted me to remind you that you have an appointment with the dressmaker at three"-  
  
"Tea would be lovely," interrupted Elizabeth, lacing her hand through James's offered arm. Anything would be better than an appointment with that horrid dressmaker, even tea with dear Norrington.  
  
The café was decently sized, but trellises laced with greenery partitioned off tables to provide the diners with some amount of privacy. James led Elizabeth to a table for two in the back corner of the restaurant, to make it even better. The maid took Elizabeth's parasol and went to wait outside. Elizabeth sat in the chair that James offered to her and arranged her skirts around the wooden legs as he sat down.  
  
Tea and scones were brought and they ate in silence for a few moments before Elizabeth set down her teacup in the china saucer and said, "So, have you any news of Jack Sparrow?"  
  
James raised one eyebrow. "Captain Jack Sparrow," he corrected with a smile, "And no, we have not."  
  
Elizabeth hid a grin. "He is a cunning devil," she said.  
  
"Indeed," said James. "But, if we could get your friend Mr. Turner to talk, we could have Captain Sparrow in irons before the day was out."  
  
"Will would never give Jack away," Elizabeth said airily.  
  
"I know." They sat in silence for a few moments as he sipped from his cup. Elizabeth finished her tea and a pudgy bewigged man with several chins and a frilly vest took it away. She could tell that James was about to make some sort of pronouncement and steeled herself for the worst, which included nightmare visions of him getting down on his knee in front of her and offering her a splendid ring.  
  
"You really do love him, don't you," was what he actually said, and there were no knees involved. His dark eyes gave away nothing. He just wanted an answer.  
  
Elizabeth raised her chin and gave a small shrug. "I do," she answered, even though it hadn't really been a question that he was asking.  
  
James nodded. "I know we've been through this before, and I apologize," he said in what Elizabeth called his 'commodore tone'. "But I just wanted to make sure." He rose from the table and exited the café, putting his hat back atop his head as the door swung closed behind him. The prissy maid, who had been waiting outside, noticed the commodore's departure and stuck her head back inside the café to make sure her charge was all right.  
  
"Miss Swann?" she said tentatively.  
  
"We're leaving," Elizabeth answered shortly. "I mustn't be late for that appointment."  
  
~*~  
  
Serenity found herself in Will's arms again, for about the millionth time since she had been rescued, leaning back against his warm body and looking out over the vast expanse of ocean that stretched out before them. Although their actions had yet to suggest anything beyond intimate friendship, Serenity knew that they shared something that she could never share with anyone else. She had loved him, and he had saved her. They had not yet kissed, because she knew that there were still walls that stood between them, but maybe they could knock them down. Together, they would knock them down.  
  
"I'm so happy you're safe," said Will into her hair.  
  
"Me too," Serenity said, craning her neck upwards so that she could see his face. Their lips were so close together.but once again they shied away. Serenity turned back to the ocean and Will brushed his cheek against her shoulder, staring in the opposite direction.  
  
"They look so cute together!" said Jack happily, out of their earshot at the helm.  
  
"Yeah," said Anamaria shortly, "better than him'n that other wench."  
  
"'Lizabeth?" asked Jack. "What's wrong with 'er?"  
  
"Ech, she'd look better with tha' comm'dore whelp, Norrington," said Anamaria.  
  
"Aye, that commodore whelp," said Jack. "Ye know who else would look good t'gether?"  
  
"Who?" asked Anamaria, rolling her eyes and taking the bait.  
  
"You an' me," the captain said heartily. Anamaria made a frustrated noise, pushed Jack roughly out of her way and climbed down the hatch.  
  
"Aye, then," said Jack to the helm of the Pearl, "guess it's just you'n me, boat."  
  
Back at the bow of the ship, Will was trying to ignore his conscience. Just let me be happy, his inner voice said angrily. But Elizabeth still loves you. He tried to forget Elizabeth in the salty scent of Serenity's hair, but it wasn't working very well.  
  
"You're thinking about Elizabeth, aren't you?" said Serenity, not sounding hurt or betrayed. She just wanted to know.  
  
Will sighed. "Only a little."  
  
Serenity nodded and shifted a bit in his arms until she was comfortable against him again, the top of her head resting on his shoulder.  
  
"Let's not think about that until we get back to Port Royale," she said sadly.  
  
"Agreed," he replied. Serenity turned around in his arms and looked up at him.  
  
"Thank you," she said simply.  
  
"For what?" he asked.  
  
Serenity closed her eyes, smiled, and shook her head. "For everything," she said. "For helping me and that little boy during the hurricane, for taking me off that ship, for not trusting Daniel but trusting Connor all the same." She looked up at him. "I've felt so alone." She shook her head again. "Not anymore. Thank you for that. For everything."  
  
Will smiled disbelievingly down at her. They had gone through so much.  
  
He gathered her small body against his and pressed his lips into her hair. He knew that he didn't have to say 'you're welcome.' 


	16. Sixteen: Days on the Sea

The song is Fallin by the mucho talented Alicia Keys. I didn't have the lyrics saved on my computer so I made my best guess at them. Correct me if I'm wrong. Gracias! (review)  
  
~*~   
  
Chapter Sixteen  
  
Days on the Sea   
  
~*~  
  
I keep on fallin'  
  
In and out  
  
Of love with you  
  
And I never Loved someone The way I love you I never felt this way How do you give me So much pleasure Cause me so much pain Just when I think I'm more than Just a fool I keep on fallin' Back in love with you ~*~  
  
James Norrington didn't like being denied, but he could not say that no one said no to him because Elizabeth Swann just had.  
  
Repeatedly.  
  
"Why do I have to chase after her so?" he asked himself, frustrated. "I'm making a bloody fool of myself."  
  
"Indeed," answered an old coot standing nearby. "Indeed, you are making a fool of yourself, standing in the middle of the road talking to your imaginary friends." The old man raised his bushy black eyebrows, which were in stark contrast to the white of his hair. James glared at him.  
  
"No one asked you," he replied childishly.  
  
The old man shrugged. "No one asks me anything." He picked up his basket and walked away. James let out an angry noise and stomped the rest of the way to the fort. Were the confines of his office his only refuge? He resisted the urge to ask this question aloud and entered his office in silence. The room was welcoming, to his eyes at least. The wood was a warm color, the floorboards were clean, and the plush rug he had spread across it was soft. Maps hung on the walls, depicting the oceans and the islands dotted across them. A portrait of the king graced a stand near the window. James's desk was at the head of the room, of course, and he sat at it and tried to decide what to do next.  
  
But, instead of plotting his plan of action concerning Elizabeth (the future Mrs. Commodore, as he liked to think of her), he gazed disinterestedly out the sprawling windows that lined the wall behind his desk. The Caribbean Sea spread out in front of him, lovely and blue. He could see the clean, massive white sails of the Dauntless flapping in the breeze. Sailors moved about on the deck of the great ship, looking like miniatures from so far away. They were removing the British flag from the flagpole of the ship to prevent it from being damaged in the strong breeze.  
  
James turned away from the windows and picked up his quill to jot a few notes on the weather and ship conditions down in his daily log, but these facts held no interest for him today. He couldn't keep Elizabeth's face out of his mind, and he could not stop himself from hearing her voice in his head. In vain he fought the urge to analyze every word she had said, looking for possible hesitations or second thoughts.  
  
"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be," he muttered.  
  
He couldn't convince himself that this was true, and it's safe to say that the rest of the Commodore's day was wasted utterly.  
  
~*~  
  
"Why did you want to see me?" Will asked. He was standing rather awkwardly in front of the closed door that led out of the Captain's quarters. Jack was wandering around the room aimlessly, like he had never been in his own quarters before.  
  
"Ah yes, that," he said rather absentmindedly. "I suppose the girl is going to want to go home?"  
  
"You mean, Serenity?" asked Will stupidly.  
  
"No. Anamaria." Jack rolled his eyes. "Of course Serenity, you blubber-minded idiot."  
  
"She wants to go home," Will answered, "but she doesn't want to be a burden, either. She wouldn't want you to go out of your way just to bring her home."  
  
"Well, can she work?"  
  
"Of course, that's the only way she's been able to stay alive all these months on that.other ship."  
  
Jack sighed and kicked off his boots before sitting down in an overstuffed torn easy chair that he had placed on the corner of the room. He put his boots up on a small table he had put in front of it and almost knocked over the basket of apples he had placed there. "Reckon she had a hard time of it over there, eh," he mumbled. Will could tell that he was thinking of what he could do to get Serenity back home. "So she'd be willin' to stay on for awhile?"  
  
"She would."  
  
"Aye then," Jack said, with an air like some important affair had been settled. "She stays! Get back to work."  
  
Will nodded and exited the quarters, closing the door softly behind him. He returned to the deck, feeling the sun warm his face as he reached it. It was sunny now, but Will spotted some dark clouds gathering on the horizon. It looked like they might be in for a storm soon. Ana also saw the clouds. "They'll pass," she said.  
  
He found Serenity working next to Mr. Cotton, up on the rigging. Be careful, be careful, be careful. This mantra ran through his head as she descended the rigging with ease- better than Will himself could, actually. These days on the sea had changed her so much, but she was still so much the same as she had been before either of them had left Port Royale. Her pale skin had burned and become browned, her brown hair had lightened with deep red highlights in the sun, and her soft curls had become wiry with salt. But her smile was still the same.  
  
"Why did Jack want to see you?" Serenity asked, her head tilted in a curious way under the floppy hat she wore to shield her eyes from the burning Caribbean sun.  
  
Will sighed. "He wanted to talk to me about you, actually."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes.by looks of things, you might have to stay out here for a while and work with us."  
  
"That's fine," she answered. "Actually, I've been wanting to delay my return home for as long as possible.but that's selfish of me."  
  
"Why don't you want to go home?" Will asked.  
  
"I do want to go home, it's just.it's just going to be so strange, after all this time, after everything that's happened to us." she paused. "My mother and father think I'm dead, don't they?"  
  
Will hesitated, then nodded. Serenity shook her head.  
  
"My poor parents." she said, her voice trailing off. "But I'll be home as soon as I can." She looked up at Will. "There's really nothing I can do."  
  
"No," he answered truthfully. "But you're going to stay with me. I won't let anything happen to you."  
  
"I know." Serenity turned her head and looked out across the ocean. "It's so beautiful out here," she said. "Now I feel as if I can actually.enjoy it."  
  
Will agreed. "Now we can both enjoy it." Now that Serenity was safe.now that Will knew she was alive.it was like a tremendous weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He would throw no more notes out to sea. He didn't need to. The worry that had taken up a piece of his heart while she had been gone was now filled with happiness at her safe return.  
  
I don't have to lose her again, he thought. Never again. 


	17. Seventeen: Galaxy

The song is Come What May from Moulin Rouge (best movie!!!! Besides POTC, of course)  
  
~*~   
  
Chapter Seventeen  
  
Galaxy   
  
~*~ Never knew I could feel like this Like I've never seen the sky before Want to vanish inside your kiss Everyday I love you more and more Listen to my heart can you hear it sing Telling me to give you everything Seasons may change, winter to spring But I love you until the end of time Come what may Come what may I will love you until my dying day Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste It all revolves around you And there's no mountain too high No river too wide Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side Storm clouds may gather, And stars may collide I love you until the end of time ~*~  
  
The days pass slowly on the sea. They are nameless, changeless, save for the shift of the clouds and the stars in the sky. The constellations were alien to Serenity here, on the other side of the world. She had never learned the names of these stars; she only knew the ones that traced paths through the sky over England. Halfheartedly she wondered what Connor's parents were doing and thinking back in Ireland. They had never met their son's wife, of course, but they had planned to visit the Emerald Isle once they were settled...  
  
Serenity was suddenly filled with the need to go to Ireland, to see Connor's parents, to explain. Deep in her heart laid guilt, the guilt that it had been partly her fault that Connor had been killed...murdered...murdered by an evil that slept just below these decks.  
  
Will came up behind her and put an arm around her. "What are you thinking about?" he asked softly.  
  
"Connor," she answered, promptly and truthfully. Serenity didn't feel the need to lie to Will. She knew that he knew that she had loved Connor, much as he still loved Elizabeth. He had the right to think about Elizabeth. I have the right to think about my own husband, she thought, shifting under the weight of Will's arm. It's my right. White clouds from the galaxy beyond scudded across the sky. Will sighed. Serenity felt guilty suddenly, like she had done something to make him unhappy, and she turned and gently clasped her hands together behind his neck.  
  
"Don't feel bad," Will said unnecessarily.  
  
"I won't," came the whispered reply. She leaned her head gently on his chest and listened to his heartbeat.  
  
"...I do," he said.  
  
"Why?" Serenity lifted her head off his chest to look him in the eye. "Because of Elizabeth?"  
  
"Because..." Will paused. "Because this."  
  
He leaned down and kissed her softly. It was a simple kiss, nothing extravagant...but Serenity was kissing him back. She laced her hands up around his neck to run them through his thick curly hair that hung around his ears. She could feel the light pressure of his hand on the nape of her neck. He was soft and warm...the best thing she had ever felt.  
  
Will pulled away slighlyt, enough for their lips to part but still keeping her close to him. She smiled headily, kissed his bottom lip, and then rested her head back on his chest.  
  
This is right, thought Will as he cradled her in his arms. This  
is how it's supposed to be.  
  
"I love you," he whispered to her.  
  
"I love you too," she replied. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders...like the world was spinning again. She couldn't suppress a smile into the softness of his shirt. For the first time in a long time she felt truly happy. From the hands on her waist, to the fingers caressing the small of her back, to the breath on her hair, it was all right. This was how things were supposed to be.  
  
~*~  
  
Elizabeth Swann awoke late in the night with a feeling deep in her breast that something was not right. She rose from her bed, slipped her feet into her slippers, and wrapped a dressing gown around herself, trying to warm her cold arms. The night looked peaceful from what was visible between the parted brocade curtains. Elizabeth reached out and parted them the rest of the way so that she could open the door that led onto her balcony. This place was her only refuge of solitude. She leaned against the stone railing and looked out over the green mountains, looked out over the black sea. Briefly she wondered at the dead feeling that had woken her. Maybe she had had a bad dream. Yes, that must be it. A nightmare.  
  
However peaceful the night was, there was a suspicious chill in the wind. Elizabeth went back into her room and slipped back under the covers, feeling the lingering warmth of the heated bricks in her sheets. Her big toe brushed one of the square stones as she fell back to slumber. Her sleep was filled with strange dreams where Will was cheating on her with a ghost and people referred to herself only as the 'Mrs. Commodore.'  
  
~*~  
  
Will, on the other hand, awoke late in the night with something he knew he must do. His subconscious had made his decision for him, it seemed. Gently he shifted Serenity off him (somehow they had fallen asleep together) and went to a small makeshift desk that had been set up. He did not sit down, but instead composed a brief and to-the-point letter to Ms. Swann penning his regrets and his hope that she would be able to lead a happy life without him. As Will put the letter into an unsealed envelope and scrawled Elizabeth's name onto it, his eyes glanced towards the dark shape on the bed. He wanted to marry that woman. He knew it. Whatever stood in the way of their marriage was either dead or being put away by the letter in his hand.  
  
Will would mail the letter at the next stop. He put it into his pocket and laid back down next to Serenity. They had not made love, and they wouldn't. Serenity lived by firm example that people should not make love until they were married...and Will respected her decision. He loved her all the more for it, even. Briefly he wondered if her and Connor had...had ever even had the time to make love to each other, as they had been married and all. Deep down he knew that he would never know. That chapter in Serenity's life was closed, and it should stay that way until they both were dead.  
  
The letter made a crumpling, final-sounding rustle in his pocket as he laid down on the bed. He would look it over many times before he actually managed to mail it, but he knew he had made the right decision.  
  
~*~  
  
There was an envelope lying right in front of Serenity's face when she opened her eyes that morning. It had fallen out of Will's pocket during the night, but she didn't know that. Gently she eased the letter out of the envelope, read it, and put it back. 


	18. Eighteen: The Black Caribbean

The song is Kissing You by Des'ree- for anyone who's seen Baz L.'s version of Romeo & Juliet, this is the love theme from it. It's such a beautiful song, check it out sometime.  
  
Chapter Eighteen  
  
The Black Caribbean   
  
Pride can stand a thousand trials. The strong will never fall. But watching stars without you my soul cried. Heaving heart is full of pain. Oh, oh the aching. 'Cause I'm kissing you, oh. I'm kissing you, oh. Touch me deep, pure, and true. Gift to me forever.   
  
The next morning Serenity awoke to a cool breeze coming through the opened porthole. She kept her eyes closed for a few moments, enjoying the summery air and the soft sheets below her. Her hand ventured out from the side of her body to feel if Will was still there- he wasn't- but her fingertips could sense his warmth lingering on the simple periwinkle blue cotton. Slowly she opened her eyes and let them adjust to the bright Caribbean sun coming through the window. She pushed the sheet off her and went over to gaze for a moment on the sparkling ocean. The sun made the cresting waves look like they were encrusted with diamonds.  
  
Quickly Serenity dressed and went to the boat deck. She stood for a moment and stretched, the sun beating down on her face. Her shoes were thin and she could feel the rippling wood of the deck when she wriggled her toes. When the stretch was finished she opened her eyes and deftly climbed the rigging to help with the sails. The heavy black canvas squares unfurled and filled to catch the wind with a whoosh-ing sound. From up there, the sailors on the deck looked like midgets walking around. Serenity laughed, thinking of a little midget Jack standing with his feet planted apart, the wind blowing his braids around his shoulders and a telescope held firmly to his eye.  
  
While they worked with their heads in the clouds and dolphins jumping below them, Serenity thought about the letter she had found in Will's pocket the night before. She would have changed it, tore it, ripped the whole thing up had she not wanted Will to know that she had read it. A tiny voice inside her head cried out to Will that the letter was not a good idea. Serenity had not wished Elizabeth's feelings to be broken with such words devoid of feeling that Will had written. However, she knew that it was really not her business- this was between Will and Ms. Swann, and if he wanted to break it off, it was his choice how he did it.  
  
Serenity need not have worried. The letter had fallen out of Will's pocket unbeknownst to him and landed with the slightest noise on top of the waves, never to be read again by any human soul.  
  
When the sun falls on the Caribbean, it is a black, hot night that follows. Serenity sat lazily on the deck after the day's work had been finished, watching the last ribbons of color melt into the ocean. With them went the border between sea and sky, and the two became one, at least until the sun rose the next day with its quieter, more pastel awakening.  
  
She felt a hand cup her shoulder as the red of the sky faded into a dull blood color. "Beautiful, isn't it?" The whitecaps turned red and Gibbs went around carefully lighting the torches on the deck. Their immediate glow faded the stars from the sky, and Will had to squint to see them now. "Those damned torches," he said with a small laugh as Serenity stood up and leaned into him. He slid his hands around her waist and buried his nose in her hair. She smelled like salt and canvas sails.  
  
"Jack says we're going to be in Port Royale next," Will said.  
  
Serenity decided to ignore the obvious issue and deal with the next one. "Are you going to stay...or go?"  
  
Will shook his head. "I don't know."  
  
Serenity exhaled. "Well...we don't have to decide anything yet...you don't have to decide anything yet," she turned her head towards him. "But you know I have to stay. I haven't seen my parents," she shook her head, "I haven't seen them in the longest time."  
  
"I know," Will said. "I know you have to stay."  
  
"Jack can't stay," Serenity said with a smile. "He'll get himself arrested again."  
  
"It's a miracle he's lasted this long, but I don't think Norrington's been trying that hard," said Will.  
  
"No," Serenity said softly. "He hasn't." She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the moment, because she didn't know how long they would be able to last.  
  
The Commodore Norrington was not, at present, a happy fellow. The whole pirate thing was beginning to get on his nerves again, and it was an itch that was begging to be scratched. He was sorry he had let Sparrow go. Why had he ever...  
  
Oh yes. Miss Swann.  
  
"It all comes down to the woman, doesn't it, James?" Norrington said to himself. It was night. The fort was quiet, the port was quiet, and the only vessel left on the bay was a single-sail fishing boat that was wheeling towards the beach. The night guard stood at attention on the roof, but Norrington could see a few rifles on the side opposite his window beginning to drift towards the ground as their owners began to drift, also.  
  
"Keep it snappy, gentlemen," Norrington muttered as he placed his hat regally on top of his head and turned to walk out the door. It always paid to look impressive when walking down the street to your empty house when the day's work was done.  
  
"DRINK UP ME HEARTIES YO HO!!" Jack yelled drunkenly to the black Caribbean. Serenity, laughing, raised her mug with the rest of the crew as they clapped their drinks together in a toast, but her happy expression faded as her gaze fell to Jack's left. Will stood alone at the rail of the ship, staring towards the nonexistent horizon, his hands clasped together behind his back. Serenity sighed and put her mug down next to Mr. Gibbs (none of the liquid inside would be left when she returned) and went over to Will.  
  
"Will?" she asked gently. She heard him breath out and then turn towards her. "Are you alright, Will?"  
  
"I..." Will said.  
  
"You miss Port Royale, don't you."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Serenity wrapped her arms around Will and pressed her cheek into his soft shirt. He smelled like the ocean. The ends of his hair ticked the tips of her fingers as they brushed the nape of his neck. "It's all right...it's all right," she said soothingly. She could feel Will bury his face into her hair; his hand rested on the small of her back and stroked the fabric of her clothing. Pulling away, Serenity looked up at Will's face and gently wiped a single tear from his cheek. "It'll all be right soon, I promise," she said sincerely. "And if there are any problems that arise...we'll deal with them when they do. There's no need to worry about them ahead of time, right?"  
  
Will nodded, smiled and laughed. He felt ridiculous, but not embarrassed, like he would have felt in front of anyone else. "I love you," he said quietly.  
  
Serenity smiled. "I love you too." 


End file.
